Star Butterfly and the Forgotten Monarch
by King-Mac-11
Summary: Everyone forgets something. They're keys. They're passwords. Random information. However, people usually forget things on their own. However, it seems like everyone in Mewni has forgotten something. It's a mystery no one wants to solve because no one remembers it's there. Well... Star found it and she wants to solve it! So begins the mystery of the forgotten.
1. Hidden Secrets of the Butterfly

**King: *clears throat.* IT'S GONNA GET A LITTLE WEIRD! GONNA GET A LITTLE WILD! I AIN'T FROM 'ROUND HERE! I'M FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION~! Hello all. I'm happy to bring you a new story from a new series. Today, we begin a story in Star Vs The Forces of Evil! Hope you enjoy yourselves.**

/\

Two figures stood in a hallway adorned with stained glass. The first was an older woman who stood in dark blue, regal attire. Her sky-blue hair was tied in a bun and her piercing yellow eyes trained on the other figure. The other was a young girl, around 15 years of age, with golden blonde hair. She dressed in a more practical style. Where the older woman wore a dress with accents and regalia, the younger wore a leather coat with matching pants and boots. The younger figure also had a familiar wand in her left hand, though her wand was a deep purple with black feathered wings on either side a black point on the top.

"He was insane!"

"He wanted peace!"

"Peace with monsters?! It's a stupid, silly, and childish idea! Your father was a man without a single notion of sanity. He was a mad man! Give up your childish flailing and get with the program!"

"No! Father wasn't childish, and neither am I! Just because you can't see what he cared about, doesn't mean I can't mother!"

"Silence! You're clearly blinded by your emotions. So just go back to your room and…"

"No!" The young girl raised her wand toward her mother. "I can see clearly for the first time in a long time! _You_ betrayed father! _You_ got him killed! _You_ are a traitor to your family and to the throne!" The wand started to glow an ominous green glow. "You're the monster here! And I'm going to make sure you pay for your crimes!"

"Perhaps you will…" The older woman pulled out a small glass orb. "But I'm going to make sure you'll never remember why."

The daughter fired a blast of magic to her mother. The older woman didn't budge, sure that her daughter was too weak willed to truly harm her; that she would intentionally miss out of sympathy or some foolish sense of mercy. Her arrogance would be legendary. The blast enveloped her and she screamed in agony. With her last bit of energy, she shattered the orb in her hand as she disintegrated. A wave of magic washed over the kingdom. No one was sure what it was, but they feel like they forgot something. Something important.

The daughter started to come down from her rush of adrenaline and she had taken in what she had done. She had just killed her own mother. This moment may define her for the rest of her life. She would go on to become queen, but this day would haunt her for the rest of her life. Until her dying breath, she was left with one unanswered question.

Why did she do it?

It's been 500 years since that day, and no one on Mewni could ever give her an answer.

\/

In the present day, the young Mewnian princess, Star Butterfly, made her way down an old hall of the castle with her squire and best friend, Marco Diaz. As always, she wore a happy expression and practically bounced down the halls.

Marco, however, was not so joyful, "Star… why are we going to this weird room again?"

"I wanted to see the old tapestries we keep again. Something Eclipsa said recently has got me thinking and I want to check on things."

"And… that was?"

"She said that histories are constantly changed to make a statement. I wanted to see if there was tampering with the tapestries."

"You really think someone would go through with re-stitching a tapestry. That seems like a lot of work."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough, won't we?"

They arrived in the old room and Star immediately set out trying to test the tapestry. Everything about Eclipsa's tapestry seemed perfectly normal, but Star was far too stubborn to let something escape her when she's like this. It'll take her a good long while before she'd be satisfied that nothing had happened to the centuries old fabric.

Marco decided to look around at the other tapestries. Each past queen had a tapestry which detailed their greatest achievements. They stopped just before Star's mother, Queen Moon. To Marco, it made sense. Queen Moon was still the Queen of Mewni. There could be ample opportunities for her to do something so stupendous, all her other accomplishments would be blown out of the water. Marco walked along the wall and looked at each of the banners, but stopped seeing something weird. "Hey, Star!"

Star stopped her investigation, currently hanging by the upper bar holding the piece. "What?"

"Why's there a missing tapestry?"

"What?!" Star fell to the floor and rushed over to Marco.

"Yeah." Marco pointed to the tapestry to his left. "This one says it was Queen Nebula, the Backbreaker." He pointed to a banner showing a blonde-haired, yellow-diamond cheeked warrior queen, complete with armored dress and a wand shaped as an ax. He moved attention to the tapestry to his right, which showed a younger queen with similar blonde hair and cheeks adorned with silver shades holding a wand with black feathers and point at the top. "This one says it was Queen Corona. But I remember looking both of them up in the old library for squires."

"There's a library for squires?"

"Yeah. It's mostly books about how to help your knight: armor polishing techniques, simple self-defense, how-to guides for setting up camps… That kind of stuff. But there was also a complete genealogy of the Mewni royal family. In it, it said that Queen Nebula was Corona's grandmother. If that's the case, shouldn't there be someone between the two?"

Star looked between the banners. "Yeah. I mean… I think there should be."

Marco turned to find Star with a look in her eyes that he dreaded. She had an idea and was about to immediately act on it. That was dangerous. "Star…?"

Star raised her wand and pointed between the banners. Before she could blurt out a spell, the wand reacted and the wall started to shake.

"Star! What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything yet!"

A section of the wall fell away, revealing a hidden passageway. Star had… well… stars in her eyes. She always did love hidden secrets and adventures like this. Before Marco could talk her out of it, she ran inside. "This must be one of Eclipsa's secret tunnels!"

"Star!" Marco ran in after her, as always. He was certain she would be the death of him.

They eventually found themselves in a small room. In the center was a pedestal jutting out from the floor. Resting on this pedestal was a crown with a gemstone in the shape of a broken heart. The only other item in the room… was a tapestry. The tapestry showed a man wearing said crown with a familiar wand in hand. His foot rested on a skull and his other hand held a defeated enemy.

"What is this place?" Star started to look around.

"Star…" Marco tapped her shoulder, "I think we should leave."

"No way! This is awesome! A whole secret room!"

"But, maybe there was a reason it was hidden."

Star wasn't listening. Instead, she moved to the tapestry's plaque, which she read out loud. " **Equal parts a warrior and a judge, none would stand against Mewni's mightiest mind. His was a kingdom ruled not in blood or by steel, but rather by wit and ideals. However, any who dared mistake this idealism for weakness would soon be taught the error of their ways. Be they monster or be they Mewman, all would bend their knees to King Nova Butterfly.** "

"Nova… Butterfly?" Marco looked back to the tapestry. "I don't remember him from the library." Marco re-examined the banner.

The man's face had the signature cheek marks, his being a familiar shape of a heart, but in a deep, blood red. His version of the wand was fashioned into a short sword with the wand acting as the hilt. He dressed in a deep royal purple and was adorned with a red, feathered cape. His dark hair was tied back in a ponytail poking out from under his crown. Everything about the man commanded attention and exuded regality.

Marco took a step backward. He felt like the tapestry could see into his soul. "Okay… Star, I really think we should leave."

"No way Marco!" Star was practically bouncing off the walls. "This is so awesome! So many questions! What happened to him? Why haven't we heard of him?"

"Oh my…" The two turned to find Eclipsa walking into the room. "Well this is new."

"Hi Eclipsa!"

"Hello again Star."

"Wait, you didn't know about this room? I thought you knew about all the secret passages."

"I thought I did." Eclipsa walked up and examined the crown. "Seems I missed this one…" She turned her attention to the tapestry. "Well now… Who have we here?"

"Says here it was Nova Butterfly."

"Nova Butterfly? That's a new one."

"Aww… I was kind of hoping you knew something." Star gasped immediately after she finished her sentence, "Maybe this is some big conspiracy or cover up! Someone doesn't want us to know about this man!"

* _ba bum_ *

Marco looked around. "Did you hear that?"

Star turned to Marco, confused, "Hear what?"

"It sounded kind of like… a heartbeat?"

* _ba bum_ *

"There it was again!"

"Marco… are you okay?"

* _ba bum ba bum_ *

"It's picking up now."

"Marco, we can't hear anything."

* _ba bum ba bum ba bum_ *

Marco heard the beats for a few seconds before they suddenly stopped. "Okay… it stopped…"

Star looked over to Eclipsa, who shrugged to her indicating she had no idea what he was talking about.

Marco looked around and turned the two toward the exit. "Okay… I think it's time to leave!"

The two didn't argue or attempt to stick around. Whether Marco was hearing things or not, they weren't about to question it just yet. Magic has plenty of weird stuff like that and Marco is a bit more observant than either of them. So, it's possible that they just didn't hear it. When they left the room, the passage closed and the wall looked like nothing had ever happened.

Though, it did happen and Star saw this as a fun new adventure. "Marco! We have to find out more about this guy!"

Marco sighed. He knew he couldn't talk her out of it, but he was also rather interested in Nova's story. "Alright… I'll look in the squires' library and let you know if I find anything."

"Thanks Marco! I'll look into the royal archives! If he was a Butterfly, he should be in there, right?"

"Good thinking."

"Okay! We'll regroup in three hours!"

"Uh… Star? Why three?"

"Because I can't be late for dinner today or mom will get mad."

"Alright then. See you then."

Star raised her arm into the air, "Move out!" She ran off toward the archives. Marco sighed and followed her down the hall, making a turn to leave the castle.

Eclipsa chuckled at their antics. "I suppose I should be getting back to my tower. The guards may notice soon…"

\/

Two hours.

Two hours of research, only to find nothing! Marco let his head fall onto the hard wood of one of the library's tables. It would have been fine to learn something stupid about him. Say… Nova was king for a grand total of 5 minutes or there was some loophole that made it so he was someone no one really liked so they just got rid of his stuff. Instead, Marco found nothing.

Zip!

Zilch!

Nada!

Nothing!

There was nothing. Not even a mention in the volumes about Nebula. Nothing about her having a son. No mention of her having a child at all! In the volumes about Corona, no mention of her father. Instead, there was only mention of Corona's mother Mira Butterfly. Corona's volume also told about her killing said mother. But it never said why.

Marco was getting exasperated. Two hours only to find nothing about Nova. He was starting to lose hope about finding anything.

After his pained realization, the librarian walked up to him and tapped his shoulder. "Are you alright?" The librarian was a young man that felt strikingly out of place. Surrounded by burly knights and trained squires, he was thin and kind of pasty. His blonde hair, green eyes, and soft-spoken nature made him difficult to pick out of a crowd. His most distinguishing feature was his thick glasses and a small scar on his upper lip.

Marco turned his head to face the librarian, but kept his head solidly on the table. "I'm fine. Just hit a dead end is all…"

"Oh… Well, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not unless you know anything about Nova Butterfly."

"Nova… Butterfly…" The librarian placed his index finger on his head as he thought. "Doesn't sound familiar…"

Marco sighed in defeat. "And that's the story of today…"

The librarian looked around, as though to check if anyone was close by.

"Um… Are you okay?"

The librarian leaned down to Marco and spoke in a whispered tone, "Okay… I might know someone who could help you. But I need you to promise not to tell the Butterfly family."

"What?!"

The librarian placed his hand over Marco's mouth, continuing to whisper, "Keep your voice down!"

"Fine!" Marco matched his whisper. "Now, you realize I'm Star Butterfly's squire, right?"

"Honestly, Star is the least of any worries with the Butterfly family. Just, promise me you won't tell Queen Moon or King River."

"Fine. Who is it, anyway?"

"Alright." The librarian took one last look and a deep breath before starting. "According to rumors, there's an old mystic out in the monster lands. He's an old master that people say is as strong as the Butterfly family in magic."

"Really? A rumor? Don't you have anything more concrete?"

"I'm not done! I actually looked into this rumor. He's real~! He's actually real! A real mage!"

"Is… that really all that surprising. I mean, there's magic all around the kingdom."

"Yes, here and there. Mostly using specific items like dimensional scissors. But there's very few people who practice magic as a lifelong pursuit here in Mewni. The only people that do so are the Butterfly family. Everyone else who practices magic like that is from other dimensions."

"I… guess that makes sense."

"But there's a real Mewman mage!"

"So… what makes the Butterflies… you know, not mages?"

"Based on what I understand, the Butterflies command magic abilities and stuff like that; but, no matter how weird it gets, there's always some kind of internal logic. Something deeper down than we see. A mage, on the other hand, cuts out the middle man and just rewrites the rules."

"You're not making any sense."

"Okay. Let me try it like this. Say both are walking down pathways and are halted by a giant boulder. The Butterflies would cast a spell to move or break the boulder to move on. A mage would simply walk through it like it wasn't there."

"Wait, what?"

"It's the best way I could explain it. Just… trust me. You won't be disappointed. Just go see him. He's more likely to know something than anyone else around here."

"Thanks."

"Glad to help in the pursuit of knowledge. Good luck out there."

\/

Marco and Star reconvened in Star's room after the requisite three hours.

Star was lying on her bed as Marco arrived, "Marco… please tell me you found something. The archives didn't have anything helpful!"

"Well… the library didn't have anything either."

"Ah!" Star buried her head in one of her pillows.

"But…"

Star lifted her head from its feathery aggravation aid.

"I… overheard someone at the library talk about someone who might know something."

"Seriously?!"

"It's possible. He, apparently, lives out in the monster territories and knows a lot of stuff."

"Awesome! Let's go!"

"Don't you have to be at dinner or your mom will be mad?"

Star stopped and turned back toward Marco on one heel. "Right… Okay! After dinner we'll…"

"And you have a date with Tom to the bounce lounge."

"Then…"

"Then there's the laser puppies."

"Um…"

"Then there's…"

"Okay! I get it. When is my schedule open next?"

Marco pulled out a schedule book and turned the pages for a few seconds. "Tomorrow."

"Really? That soon?"

"Just after breakfast, yeah."

"Alright! Tomorrow, we'll meet this… uh…"

"I didn't get a name."

"Okay then. Another mystery to discover!"


	2. Investigations

Marco stood in the familiar halls of Butterfly castle. He walked down the hallway to the throne room. He couldn't remember why… just that he had to reach the room. He arrived, and no one was there. Marco slowly walked in and looked around. When he turned back toward the throne, he saw the crown from the room with Nova's tapestry.

* _Ba bum_ *

Marco looked around a bit, hearing the heartbeat again.

* _Ba bum_ *

Marco tried to walk out, only to find himself back in the throne room again.

* _Ba bum ba bum ba bum_ *

"Okay… that's getting annoying…"

* _BA BUM*_

Marco felt a chill go up his spine. The heart beat got louder.

* _BA BUM BA BUM BA BUM*_

Marco started to shake. This was crazy! It had to be some stupid dream!

 _Little butterfly… a fiery passion... only to be forgotten…_

Marco woke with a start. His breathing was heavy, and he was sweating. He looked over to his window to find the sun having yet to rise. After a few minutes, Marco lied back onto his pillow, unable to close his eyes again.

"The young…" A realization spread over Marco's face. His expression fell back into thought. "I wonder…"

After breakfast, Marco made his way to Star's room, knocking on the door. Star flung the door open and pulled Marco inside. Sitting in the room was, not just Star and Marco, but also the familiar faces of Pony Head, Tom, Kelly, and Janna.

Marco turned to the princess, confused. "Um… Star?"

Star moved among the group and sat on her bed. "I thought of another lead about Nova! I also already told everyone else already!"

"Okay… Why?"

"Well, I thought it was best to do this as a group! We can cover more ground this way in small groups!"

"That makes sense… So, what lead did you find, anyway?"

"I thought I could ask Onmitraxus Prime! He knows all about other, crazy dimensional stuff. I figured he might know something." Star grabbed her wand and jumped from her bed to the center of the group. "Alright! We'll split up into two teams!"

"Actually, Star," Marco interrupted her, "I thought of something last night that might help the search."

"Really?! What is it?!"

"It's an old proverb I heard during Hekapoo's trial… I don't remember the specifics, but I remember something about a forgotten butterfly. It may have something to do with Nova."

"Okay." Janna leaned forward, sitting backward on a chair. "So, three groups then. That can work. Now… who's going where?"

Marco turned to Janna, "Considering my lead is in Hekapoo's dimension, I'll lead that team."

"You sure?" Star seemed a bit worried.

"I'm sure."

"Alright…"

Janna raised half-raised one hand. "What about the other place? What's that about?"

"Supposedly, there's a magic guy that lives out in the monster lands."

"Nice~ I call dibs on that one."

"Okay… If Janna's going to see the mage," Star turned to Tom. "Tom… Can you go with her and make sure nothing happens?"

Tom had an inner debate for a moment. He wanted to go with Star; spend time with his girlfriend, you know? But he also knew her friend was just human and would probably get herself killed without an escort. His decision was made for him when he looked back to Star and saw her pleading eyes. Tom sighed, "Fine."

"Thanks! We need to make sure neither Janna nor the monsters get hurt and if Marco and I are going to other locations… That means Pony Head and I will talk to Omnitraxus!"

Kelly turned to Star, "So… I'm going with Marco for this one?"

Star was distracted by a thought for a second before answering. "Yes. But I have to warn you… when you reach Hekapoo's dimension, try not to get… distracted."

Kelly leaned back a bit and raised an eyebrow. "Okay?"

"Alright, everyone! Move out!"

\/

Star and Pony Head walked through the Time-realm… thing. Pony Head would occasionally complain about life or some transgression against her most people wouldn't think was too big; like a parent embarrassing them at a party. Eventually, they ran into time and his hamster wheel contraption. They asked if Onmitraxus was around, only to be told that Time didn't know. Both princesses groaned a bit and kept walking.

After about two hours, they eventually found Onmitraxus. As they approached the guardian of Space-Time, Star introduced Pony Head and told him about their mission. "So… do you think you could help us?"

The Space-Time guardian rubbed his chin in thought. "Strange… My memory of this… Nova Butterfly is failing…"

Star groaned, "Dang it…"

"How odd…"

Star heard a tone in Onmitraxus' voice that made her perk up.

"It seems my memory of the old Butterfly is still there… but something feels off."

"What do you mean?"

"I feel the presence of the one called Nova… but it feels broken."

"Wait a second." Pony Head floated to meet Omnitraus' eyes. "How can a memory be broken? But you still remember them? You tryn' 'ta play us?"

Omnitraxus took a moment to understand what she said. "Um… no? Look, I can see the pieces of the memory. Strange as that sounds. But I feel that it's not complete. Like my memory is broken as though made of glass. Pieces are missing that keep me from truly remembering anything."

Star used one of the many platforms to join them at a similar height. "Okay… So, how do we fix that?"

"I am uncertain. In theory, if the memory could truly be broken; then by gathering the pieces, one could reform the memories."

"Okay. We just have to find the pieces of memory! That can't be too hard!"

"Do you have idea where they could be?"

"Not in the slightest!"

Onmitraxis shook his head. "Okay… I'll look into this, but I can't do much else until the Magic Commission approves action."

"Thank you, Onmitraxis!"

\/

Janna walked through the monster lands without a care in the world. The demon tasked with keeping her alive, however, was miles passed a last nerve. Monsters constantly attacked thinking they were an easy target. Tom didn't blame them for that. He was a prince, after all. No. His problem was the human that walked through the land like she was immortal. Tom burned away most of the threats pretty early, but one thing gets through and turns tail and the chick thinks she's invincible! They better find this mage fast…

A small blue fireball appeared in front of the two.

"The heck is that?" Janna examined the fireball.

The fire moved from side to side before jumping toward Tom. After a moment, it turned red and flew off into the distance. The fire reappeared, as though expecting them to follow it.

Janna folded her arms. "So… Is this, like, some weird monster trap?"

Tom took a moment to respond. "No way. That's a hell fire caller. It's a technique used by demons to keep out intruders. If this was a trap, we'd have already sprung it."

"Brutal~ Then let's check it out!" Janna ran after the fire.

"Wait!" Tom tried to keep pace after her.

The two followed the little flame until they reached a modest cottage in the middle of the woods. The fire floated around in the air a bit before turning blue again and leaving.

Janna turned back to the cottage, "Think this is it?"

Tom growled a bit but kept it low enough to ensure Janna didn't hear. "Better be…"

They approached the door, only to have it open just before impact. Standing behind the door was an old Mewman man with greyed hair and the expression of a man that's seen some shit. "What do you want?"

Janna was the one to answer. "Uh… We're looking for a Mewman mage that lives out here somewhere. Is that you?"

"Who's asking?"

"Well~ I'm Janna. And that's Tom, some demon prince or something…"

The old man glared at the two a moment before sighing. "Yes. I'm the mage. Now get lost."

"Hey, hold on! We came out here for a reason!"

"I know. I can read it all over your face. You're here for your magical curiosity. I can't help you. So, get lost!"

As the old mage tried to slam the door, it was caught a demonic hand. Tom put his foot in the door and forced it open. After a few seconds of eye contact, Tom bowed to the old man. "Please. We need your help."

Janna looked at the scene like Tom had grown a second head. She heard horror stories about Star's demon boyfriend when he was still her ex. She heard about his explosive temper and trigger happy argumentative state. Yet here he was, bowing his head to the old guy that shouted at them to leave.

The old mage raised an eyebrow. "Young demon… why are you here?"

Tom never rose his head, "We're here to try to shed light on something that has been in darkness."

The man looked at Tom for a second before folding his arms. "Now I know you're a prince… That silver tongue will serve you well. But that doesn't mean I should help you."

"I'm not asking as a prince."

This caught the mage's attention. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for Tom to elaborate.

"Someone very important to me discovered something no one else remembers. We heard you might know something. Thus, we've traveled here to ask this of you."

After a minute of silence, the mage spoke again. "An odd day when the most sincere person in the area is an anger prone, teenage demon…" The old mage sighed. "Alright. What was this thing everyone seems to have forgotten?"

Tom rose back up to a standing position. "An old monarch named Nova Butterfly."

"Nova Butterfly? Nova… Nova…" The mage stepped outside and floated a book toward him from inside. "The name isn't familiar. Strange."

Janna tried to rejoin the conversation, "If everyone else wouldn't remember, what would make you different?"

"Memory is fickle for those not versed in my field. However… for me to forget something is rare indeed… And this book tells me nothing!" He tossed the book back into his cottage. "Okay… Plan B, then."

"So… what's plan B?"

"We ask him."

Janna's eyes widened in anticipation. "Dead king séance?"

"Basically…" The mage raised his hand and waved toward the ground. A section of the ground shifted from the grassy floor to a flat stone square. He raised a hand upward with two fingers extended before slamming it toward the stone, causing a magical circle to appear chiseled into the stone. Four lit candles rose up from the corners.

"Awesome~"

The mage sat cross-legged in the air and his hands began to glow. The candles started to flicker in and out until they blew out with rising smoke. The smoke gathered above the circle into a large sphere. It continued to swell until it burst.

After a minute with nothing happening, Janna asked, "Is… is that it?"

"It shouldn't have been." The mage landed on the ground again. "Seems I can't help you two any further."

"What?"

"The spell worked. However, the target is not there. Nova is in the past, but something is keeping the spirit from crossing. Like it's not complete. If I had to guess… the pieces are captive somehow. Still of this plane, but separate as well…"

\/

Meanwhile, a dragon-cycle rode over the arid wastes of a far-off land. Two figures sat atop the cycle. One was the adult Marco, eyes trained on the land before him. The other was a shocked Kelly. The young, aqua-haired fighter had every right to be shocked. Marco went from pretty scrawny teen to muscular warrior just by going through a portal. Then there was the dragon-cycle, which he apparently named Nachos. Kelly was holding on for dear life as Marco sped over earth and sky atop the beast.

The two rode the cycle for nearly two hours by that point. Kelly tried to use conversation to pass the time or at least distract her from the ludicrous speeds they were traveling at, but Marco never answered. It was like he was trying to avoid something… Like their speed was motivated by something recent.

Eventually, they arrived at a large monastery. "This is the place." Marco had Nachos park and jumped off the dragon.

Kelly followed him shakily. "Okay… So, what is this place?"

"The cloister of the dimensional scholars. A place of knowledge beyond our understanding."

Kelly took in the monastery and couldn't help feeling small in its presence. "Neat."

The two walked into the monastery. Marco led the way passed robed figures toward the library.

Kelly looked back at the figures as they walked, "Um… Are these the dimensional scholars?"

"Yep."

"Why are they… see-through?"

"Because they aren't really here." His point was made as one passed through the duo as they walked.

"What?"

"It's a technique they call Dimensional Dissociation. Short version is they're spread across multiple dimensions at once. They're here, and not at the same time."

"Weird."

"It's done wonders for them so far…" The two reached a room in the back of the library with old, black stone tablets. "Here we are."

Marco searched the tablets until he found the one mentioning the butterfly. It was written in the ancient language, which he was thankful he remembered from his time chasing Hekapoo.

 **Little butterfly, born on wings of stardust. Singing your song of truth and life.**

 **Little butterfly, rebellious and kind. Yours was a world of war and strife.**

 **Seeing injustice reign, you set out for a new course for your land.**

 **A fiery passion burned within you to end the war at hand.**

 **Young butterfly, flying on wings of fire, you burned brighter than any star.**

 **But your bright beacon attracted the vilest of beings, a true monster.**

 **Glorious butterfly, mighty king, you took this beast into your hearth and home.**

 **How could you know this vile being planned your end when she sat by your throne?**

 **Peaceful butterfly, you were betrayed by one you trusted so much in this world.**

 **She clipped your wings and you fell to your end, your peace unfurled.**

 **Broken butterfly, avenged by your next, no war would need be fought in.**

 **You brokered a peace unlike any other, only for you and your peace to be forgotten.**

Marco placed his hand on the tablet after reading it. He saw the story before him. He noticed something odd in the pattern. He traced a pattern somewhere underneath the symbols. Marco pulled out a marker and started to trace the symbols beneath it.

When he was done, Kelly looked at the new phrase before them. "So… what does that one say?"

"Roto a través de mundos. Roto más allá de la muerte."

"Uh…"

"Broken across worlds. Broken beyond death." Marco looked back to a scholar passing by.

\/

Once all of the teens returned to Star's room, they recounted their findings. Star paced around her room and nibbling on her wand as she thought. "So…" she turned back to the group, "We've established that Nova's memory is broken somehow. And we need to put it back together for anyone to remember anything about him."

Janna nodded, "That's about it, yes."

"But we have no idea how to find them."

"Also correct."

"That doesn't help."

Star was interrupted by her mirror receiving a call. [Call from: Omnitraxis Prime.]

Star saw the caller ID and quickly answered the mirror. "Omnitraxis?"

The dimensional being appeared in the mirror. "Hello again, Star Butterfly."

"Did you find something?"

"I have, actually."

"Seriously?!"

"Six somethings. Six signatures that match our dimensional sign in six separate locations."

"Awesome! Tell us where to find these things and we can…"

"I doubt you can."

"What do you mean?"

"These pieces of memory aren't across dimensions… They're in separate realities. Dimensional scissors can't break reality to travel across them."

"Then… we can't do anything?! It's over?!"

"I didn't say that."

This caught the group's attention. How would they be able to travel across realities to collect those memories?

"I can allow you all to traverse to these realities."

"You can?!" Star didn't sound surprised. More like… hyper-enthusiastic. A thought came to her and she stopped. "Wait… I thought you couldn't do anything else without the Commission's permission."

"He can't." Star spun around to find her mother walking into the room in her armored dress.

"Mom?"

Moon Butterfly wasn't alone. She was accompanied by the remaining members of the High Commission, Hekapoo and Romulus. Moon walked toward her daughter, "When Omnitraxis told us about this… Nova Butterfly, our decision was simple. If there is something going on, we need to find out and deal with it appropriately."

"Yeah!" Romulus raised his arms and shouted.

Omnitraxis cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "I can grant you all access to the six portals. However, and this is important, only one of you can go through each at any time to avoid too much damage to the barriers between the realities."

"So, six of us have to go through six portals…" Moon thought for a moment. "Romulus, I need you to stay behind and watch after the castle. River can run the kingdom, but I don't want to take chances with Eclipsa here…"

Romulus nodded with a look of determination on his face, "Got it!"

Star turned to her own group. "Janna. Pony Head. It might be best for you both to stay behind as well."

Janna snapped her finger and ended the motion point at Star, "Sounds like a plan."

Omnitraxis let them plan before taking a deep breath. "Okay then… Let's get started. Oh! I almost forgot. You're going to see some very familiar faces. But keep in mind that these are not people you know. Everyone you meet in those realities are strangers to you. I also have no idea what form these memories will take, only that they will feel out of place to the people of that reality. Good luck out there."

/\

 **King: It continues. What will they all find in these realities? Who will they meet? Hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter. I know I am.**


	3. Tom and the Demon's Due

**King: Hey. I just wanted to stop in here real quick with a reminder so as to avoid confusion. As established in the previous chapter, six individuals have been sent to six different realities. They were sent alone to find the pieces of Nova's memory. However, some familiar faces will make an appearance with the same name. To avoid loosing my mind trying to come up with constant adjectives, I just used the name for each. Keep this in mind as you read. Anyway, that out of the way, hope you enjoy.**

 **/\**

Tom stepped out of the portal and onto a familiar looking floor. He looked around to himself in the hall from the Blood Moon Ball. Not his proudest moment, but that's not important right now. Now, he had to find that memory shard thing and get back to Star. He sighed and made his way through the hall. His steps let out an echo through the empty hall and it felt off-putting. His eyes darted back and forth, half expecting something to jump him. He finally reached the exit and opened the doors to find an underworld very different from his own.

Unlike his burning hell-scape, this was a massive casino-like structure. It was honestly a little jarring. He walked passed demons of all kinds in uniforms: red vests over black shirts and black dress pants. It was something he didn't think he'd ever see. Sure… demons wore their suits or dresses to the Blood Moon Ball, but that was only once every 667 years. Demons were acting as dealers at card tables or dice rollers. The gamblers ran the gambit from Mewman to some monsters; which was another odd site. He felt so out of place.

"Hey! Triclops!"

Tom turned toward the shouting. It wasn't the first time he'd been called that, but he had enough of a handle on his anger not to blow up at the guy this time. His anger management has made serious strides thanks to Star, so he was able to keep his head together.

The person waving him down was a young woman in the same uniform as the other demons. Said uniform had its top two buttons unbuttoned showing off her cleavage, a clear diversionary tactic. She was trying to flag him down toward her empty card table. "Care to try your luck~?"

Tom looked around like he was looking for a better table. He knew he had to blend in with the people around him. He might be able to find out something as well… He shrugged and sat down at her table. "Sorry… first time in a place like this."

"Welcome~ Thanks for stopping by at my table. House'll give you a nice K for today to use at the table. Deal is, that you only make money if you make earn more than 1,000 in the game."

"I appreciate it. What's the game?"

"A favorite of the human realm, 21. Also called Black Jack. Face cards are all worth 10 and aces are worth either 1 or 11, depending on what you choose. You need to reach but not exceed a value of 21."

"Got it." After placing an ante, Tom was dealt his two cards and held them to his face. Two 10 cards.

The dealer had her own cards, one face up and the other face down. The card Tom could see was a 9. She placed her hand over the deck of cards to her side. "Now, if you have 21 you win the hand right now. If you have less, you can ask to draw a card to get closer to 21. During each, you can either raise your bet from the ante or decide to leave it as is."

Tom nodded. He didn't really care about the game. He just wanted to find that piece of memory and get back to his own reality and back to Star. Perhaps he could use this situation to help progress with that goal… He tossed a couple extra chips in as he spoke, "I'm actually here to find something. Have you seen or heard of anything that just felt… out of place? Possibly broken?"

The dealer matched his chips and thought for a moment. "I think the boss has…"

"Boss?"

"Yeah. The casino head. Real firecracker that one…"

"Where can I find them?"

"What?"

"This casino head… where can I find them?"

She looked at him suspiciously, "Why do you want to know?"

"The thing I'm looking for needs to be returned to it's home." He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tell the whole truth about this.

"Uhm… Well, the boss will have you pulled in if you break something. Tends to… Hey!"

Tom stood up and started walking off.

"Where are you going?!"

"I would think that was obvious." Tom let the fire surround his body.

"Sir! Please don't…!"

Too late. Tom set fire to a good five card tables in an instant. He caused a small king's ransom in property damage before he was tackled by a pair of large demons in black jumpsuits. Tom was quickly cuffed and beat across the head to keep him from fighting back. The two, much larger demons (we're talking demons crossed with bodybuilding sharks large) dragged him across the floor and tossed him into a single chair in a room. He was forced to sit down, facing away from the room's entrance. Tom sat there for a while, starting to get over the headache those two behemoths gave him. He had plenty of time to right himself again, as they made him wait for a solid twenty minutes. His ears perked a bit when he heard the door open behind him.

"Well now. You've certainly made a mess, haven't you?"

The voice sounded familiar. Tom had to hold himself back from an outburst hearing that voice. It was Star's friend Janna, the human that ran his nerves to the ground only hours before. She walked into view and Tom was almost at a loss for words.

Unlike the human he had to deal with earlier, this Janna was a demonic being. She had a pale skin-tone similar to his own and three red eyes. She also dressed drastically different to the Janna he knew; wearing a solid black dress that reached down to her knees with a slit up her left thigh. She completed the look with long gloves and a pair of heels. She stood in front of him and folded her arms. "So, what's so important to see me that you decided to destroy my casino?" Before she could answer, she raised an eyebrow and knelt down to look him in the eyes. "Thomas?"

Tom was confused for a moment. "Um… No? Or… yes? I am Thomas Luciter. But I go by Tom. But how do you know me?"

She narrowed her eyes, studying him. After a while of silence, she stood back up. "I don't think I do. For one, the Tom I know is a human. But you're clearly demonic…"

"I could explain that, but I need you to promise you'll listen to the end and that you'll answer a question for me as well."

The demonic Janna smiled. "Deal." One explanation of events later, the demonic Janna thought in silence for a few minutes after. "Well… that's quite the story."

"Now it's my turn to ask a question."

"Yeah… yeah… sure. Whatever." She was still mulling over what he told her.

"Where can I find that memory shard."

Janna was brought back to the moment and turned toward him. "I do own what you're looking for… Always felt out of place, no matter what I did with it… However, I'm not going to just hand it over."

Tom let out an exasperated sigh. "Let me guess, I have to complete some task to earn it."

"If you want something, you have to give and/or risk something. That's how demons work. It's only fair."

"Alright. What do I have to do?"

"There's a few people who owe me quite a substantial amount of money, and you're going to collect from them or bring them in to pay their due."

"Fine. Let's just get this over with."

\/

Tom walked through a small town in Mewni. He had collected from two of his charges by this point. They were fairly simple; just a quick threat and they paid pretty quickly. Now he had to collect from two more, and it was there was one on that list he wasn't sure how he felt about. The first was just another name to him; some shmuck going by the name [King-Mac-11]. The one that tripped him up was [Marco Diaz]. Tom knew this wasn't the Marco he was familiar with, but it still felt odd. But if Tom wanted to get back sooner rather than later, he had to collect from this reality's Marco and get back to Star. Tom shook his head and took a deep breath.

He used a demonic portal system to find Marco, leading him to Earth. He arrived and started walking around the familiar town of Echo Creek. He half expected to find a normal, human Marco similar to the one he knew in his reality. He eventually found himself in front of the school he invited Star to the Blood Moon Ball and he first met Marco. Tom took a moment to take in the area. It all seemed so much like the one he'd seen a few times by now in his own reality. He'd almost believe he crossed back somehow.

Tom was jolted out of his thoughts when someone bumped into him from behind. The figure fell backward while Tom remained still. Tom turned around to be met with an all too familiar face: his own. This Tom, however, was very much human. He dressed in more casual clothing with a devil face pattern emblazoned on his t-shirt. The human Tom quickly realized what happened and scrambled to his feet, apologizing to the person he bumped into.

Tom didn't say anything as his human counterpart apologized. He didn't want to cause a scene for now. "Look, it's fine. I'm in a bit of a rush right now, so can you tell me where to find Marco Diaz?"

The human Tom, we'll call him Thomas, froze for a moment. "Why do you need to see Marco?"

Tom raised an eyebrow. "You know him?"

"Um… yeah. But that doesn't answer my question."

"I just need to ask him a couple questions. Hopefully, nothing more."

"Hopefully?"

"If things go too far south, I will have to deal with the situation."

The Thomas seemed to shrink a little at Tom's indirect threat, but still held his ground. Almost as though he wasn't really afraid of the demon. "So long as you promise not to go overboard with things… I guess…" He turned and started to walk off down the street.

Tom took this as a 'follow me' action and started to walk with him. They eventually arrived at the familiar Diaz household.

Thomas opened the door and shouted inside, "¡Despierta! ¡Tenemos compañía!" After a moment of silence, he walked in and shouted again. "Marco! You here?" Thomas walked to the side and sighed. "There you are…"

Lying on the couch was the familiar form of Marco Diaz. However, Tom couldn't help but notice a few differences. This Marco wore a white hoodie with an angelic design. This Marco also had a more laid-back appearance compared to the hyper-anxious and schedule centric Marco Tom was familiar with. This Marco shifted to look to Thomas. "Alright… alright… I'm up, Thomas…"

As the two stood next to each other, Tom noticed something else. The two seemed to be a sort of matching set. Thomas wore red and black with demonic patterns while Marco wore white, gold, and blue with angelic themes. They both had the same hair and eye colors to top it off. And Thomas's Spanish when they arrived… _Oh! O-oh…_

Marco noticed the demon Tom and placed a hand on Thomas's shoulder. "Thomas… I need to speak to our guest alone."

Thomas's eyes narrowed, but he nodded and walked off up the stairs.

Marco kept his attention on Tom, saying nothing for minutes on end.

Tom felt a little awkward in the silence and tried to break the ice a bit. "So… Thomas is… your brother?"

Marco folded his arms, remaining defensive. "Yeah… Fraternal twin."

"Cool…"

The awkward silence returned for a few more minutes before Marco spoke up. "This is a new low for Janna… Sending her collector and making him look like my brother…"

Tom scoffed hearing that. "No one made me look like anything. I'm Tom Luciter. I have a deal with Janna to get something I need. To get it, I need you to pay off your debt to her. Pay up and we can go our separate ways."

Marco glared at Tom for a solid minute in silence. "And if I refuse?"

"Then I drag you back to pay her. Look, you need to pay your dues. So, let's get this over with without violence. I don't want to have to hurt you."

"Funny." Marco held up his hand like it was a gun. "I was about to say the same thing." Marco's hand shot upward, as if he fired said finger gun. This was because he actually did fire the 'gun'. A small burst of energy slammed into Tom and sent him flying into the wall, cracking the surface. As Tom started to black out, Marco walked over and kicked the demon in the nose for good measure.

\/

Tom eventually came to again in a dark room, tied to a chair. "Starting to see a pattern here…"

Tom looked up to see Marco sitting backward on a chair, staring at him.

"Something wrong?"

"You tell me." Marco stood up and spun the chair around to sit in it normally, crossing his legs. "I make it a point to at least hear out the sob stories of Janna's collectors and why they were sent to track me down. So, start talking."

Tom was taken aback at this. "Are you sure you're Marco Diaz?"

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"No. You're just… not what I expected."

"I get that a lot…"

"I wasn't told anything when I got sent here. I was just told to collect whatever your debt is. Mind if I ask what it is? Seeing as you're so keen not to pay it."

Marco sighed seemed to relax a little. "Sure… Whatever. I'm supposed to work in Janna's little casino to pay off getting her help for Star during the Battle for Mewni…"

"Battle for Mewni?"

"Long story…"

"Okay…" Tom had an idea what the events could have been but didn't want to go down that road if he didn't have to.

"Point is, she never showed, and we had to deal things on our own. So, I don't owe her jack."

"She seems to think differently…"

"Let her. As far as I care, she can go to her grave unsatisfied for that bull…"

"If I may… You said she keeps sending more collectors, right?"

"What of it?"

"If this keeps up, your family might become targets…"

Marco leapt up from his chair and grabbed Tom's collar, pulling him and the chair off the ground. "Is that supposed to be a threat? Last I checked, I sent you into the wall with just my finger!"

"Calm down!" Something about Tom being on the receiving end of an angry outburst felt a bit odd… "Look, I just need to take you back and I get what I want. You can settle whatever your issue is with her in person. It'll get the collectors to stop before something happens."

Marco dropped the demon prince, still tied to that chair, back onto the ground. "Alright. You win. I'll follow you back to Janna. But if this is some kind of trap, I will rip your head off for this."

"Noted…"

\/

After being released from the chair and collecting the debt from that one shmuck, Tom returned to the demonic casino with Marco in tow. The two walked into the hellish house of greed and made their way passed the tables and to the office of the casino head, Janna. As they approached, Janna stood with her arms folded and a smug smile on her face.

She chuckled a little when they stopped in front of her. "About time~ My new right-hand man is finally here for his first day on the job."

Tom was the first of the two to speak. "I've delivered your debts. Now give me the memory shard."

Janna smiled. "True… Alright then… but…"

"No 'buts.' Memory shard. Now!" Tom was losing his patience after being tossed into a wall.

Janna lost her smug smile for a moment, instead having an annoyed look.

This was the point where Marco entered the conversation. "Might as well just tell him the truth. You had no intention of handing over what he wants."

Tom turned toward Marco. "What?"

"This is how she operates… If my story from before wasn't enough to give you a clue about her, she makes you pay while she does nothing but sit on her ass and laugh at you."

Janna snapped at that one. "I gave you the power to fight back against Toffee, didn't I?"

"Our deal was that 'you' would help us to save Mewni. Instead, you tried to sell off magical energy as some big thing when I learned it during the Battle to survive! Not from you!"

Tom stepped between the two before something happened. "Okay… let keep our heads together, shall we?" The irony of Tom Luciter of all people saying this was not lost on the demon prince. But he had a job to do and a girlfriend to return to. It was time to test his mediation training as a prince. "I have an idea… this is a casino, so why not play a game to decide this."

Marco stepped forward as Tom stretched out his hand to keep the angry human back, "Like hell I'll agree to that!"

Janna smirked, "I like the idea. If anything, it's the best way to fairly solve this without biases getting in the way."

Tom stepped in front of Marco, staring the demon Janna down. "Here's the deal… We'll play one hand of 21. If you win, Marco will have to fulfill his obligation at double the length."

"What the hell, Luciter?!" Marco failed to push passed the demon prince.

"However, if I win, you throw out his contract and hand over the memory shard you owe me. Deal?" Tom held his hand out toward the demon Janna, wanting to shake hands, a feint flame licking at his palm.

Janna laughed a little and shook Tom's hand. "Sounds like a plan to me."

They moved over toward one of the card tables. The gamblers fled away from the table as they approached. Tom sat down opposite Janna. "And to make this a bit more fair… I'll let you shuffle and I'll deal the cards."

Janna took the cards in hand and smiled. "If you insist." Janna started to shuffle the cards, occasionally hitting the sides of the deck onto the table to keep the cards together.

Marco grabbed Tom's collar and pulled him back a bit. "What the hell do you think you're trying to pull?"

Tom made Marco release his collar before fixing hi attire. "Trust me. I've got this."

"You better…"

The demon Janna placed the deck in front of Tom and sat back, smiling. "Ready to lose?"

Tom took the deck into his hand, "You seem sure of yourself." Tom handed out the cards one by one until they both had their two cards. Tom flipped his cards over revealing an ace and queen, both of hearts. "21. I win."

Janna looked like she nearly had a heart attack. She practically jumped up over the cards with a look of disbelief. "How?! You…! You had to have cheated!"

"I don't see how… It's more than possible for me to have these cards. Unless you have one of those cards in your hand… Or maybe… you were supposed to get these cards?"

Janna had a look of someone caught red handed.

Tom picked up the cards and looked at them as he talked. "I had a feeling you'd try to cheat the shuffle, setting yourself up to win. So, I cheated the draw." He took the deck in hand, tapping it with his thumb to remove the second card without touching the first.

Janna had a mix of emotions. She was angry to have been cheated, but also a little impressed she had been duped by something so simple but so brilliant. After a while, she started to laugh. "You really shouldn't have said anything… Since you cheated me, I don't have to uphold the deal!" This is where she expected one of the two to have an outburst, so he could throw them out, but Marco just stared on in confusion and Tom had a smug look on his face.

Confused, Janna followed Marco's sight to her right hand, which was starting to rise up on its own. She used her other hand to try to keep it down, only for it to overpower her own strength and continue on. Her traitorous hand raised to shoulder height and opened. As her hand opened, Marco's contract appeared floating above her open palm. Before she react again, the paper was up in smoke. Replacing it was a brilliant red gemstone shard, clearly a broken piece of a larger whole. She slowly held the shard toward Tom, who took the gem in hand. Once this was done, Janna's movements were her own again and she fell backward.

Her breath was shaky as she looked up toward Tom, "What the hell are you?"

Tom looked over the shard. "We had a deal… And a demon prince gets his due…" Tom would admit it was a big gamble. If Janna had been a higher rank of demon, she would have been able to reverse his deal. Thankfully, Tom was a very high rank, being a prince, and his deal was law to all of equal or lower rank among the demonic.

Marco, now free from his contract to Janna, looked toward the demonic dealer and looked with disgust. It was the face of someone that had what he wanted after so long, but still felt cheated somehow. Tom could see the emotional rollercoaster going on his head. An idea to lash out and beat the demon dealer into the ground. Then a moment of clarity where he starts to piece his freedom together in his mind. Finally, something of a look of pity; the idea that she wasn't worth his anger any more. Marco turned around, the angel wings on the back of his hoodie seeming to glow in the lights of the casino and walked out of the hellish gambling house.

Tom made his way back to the Blood Moon hall and to the portal to his home reality.


	4. Hekapoo at High Noon

A blinding flash of light accompanied the portal passage. When Hekapoo could see again, she found herself in a semi-arid field. There was tan/yellow grass with a few green patches and a dead, or dying, tree nearby. She turned to look around and found a small home nearby. Looking to the side of the home, it was clear this was a ranch of some kind rather than just a single home. She decided to try to ask about the shard there first. If they didn't know, she'd head for civilization and try there. She moved fast enough to cause the dust beneath her feet to fly up in a single burst. The winds sent some of that dust toward her, making her go into a second-long coughing fit. After recomposing herself, she went to knock on the door.

Before she made contact, the door swung open. Standing behind it was a young, gruff man, likely in his mid-to-late-teens. Dark haired, brown eyed, mole under his right eye… very familiar, but at the same time unlike anyone she'd met. He dressed in a white, button-up shirt and a pair of jeans with a pair of black boots. He glared at her and practically raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell are you? And what the hell do you want?"

This took her by surprise, but she couldn't quite understand why. She took a second to regather herself before speaking. "I'm Hekapoo…"

The young man chuckled a moment, "That's quite the name…"

Hekapoo took a deep breath before continuing. "Look, I want to ask you something."

"DIAZ!" Another voice echoed over the field from behind them.

The young man rolled his eyes and moved Hekapoo aside. Now unobstructed by the door, Hekapoo could see the young man had a weapon at his hip. He stood, waiting on the porch as a horseman approached them.

Atop a black stallion was an older man with greying hair dressed in full black attire similar to the young man's. He stepped down from the horse and walked up to the young man. The two glared at each other for a few minutes before one of them spoke.

The young man broke the silence, "What do you want, John?"

"Is that a joke?"

"It's coming from one."

"Cut the shit, Diaz."

"Then get off my property. We've talked about this, I'm not selling the property."

"You know you can't hold this place forever. Money will run out soon enough and you'll have to sell eventually. Why not sell it now and get a good price for it?"

"I said, get lost!"

"Fine. But I'll be back." John got back on his horse and started to trot off.

"If you ever do come back it'll be too soon!" Once the horseman was gone, he turned his attention back to Hekapoo. "Now, back to you…"

Hekapoo was surprised by what happened for a while before she got back to herself. "Diaz?"

"Yeah. That a problem?"

"No. Just… Mind if I ask your full name?"

After a few seconds, he spoke again, "Marco Diaz. Was that your question from before?"

"No… that's a new one."

"Then get your question out and get going."

Hekapoo now understood why it felt so odd seeing this young man. She took a deep breath before speaking, "Look, I need to ask if you've seen or heard anything about something that just feels out of place, no matter what anyone does with it."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "You know how crazy you sound right now?"

"That's a no, then…"

"Sorry, then… Seems I can't help you." He paused a moment, looking at her for a while. "How the hell do keep that fire going above your head?"

Hekapoo seemed confused, "Uh… It's just kind of there. I don't do anything to keep it going."

Marco narrowed his eyes toward her for a few seconds before taking a step toward her. He blew out the fire above her head, clearly trying to see the process to light the fire. Sure enough, the flame returned without provocation from Hekapoo. Marco took a step back seeing that. "Okay… Maybe not so crazy." After a while, he sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Right then. So, there's a crazy… thing, that doesn't belong here?"

"It'll take a little while to explain everything."

Marco nodded and walked passed her again, opening the door wide and moving to the side. "You can explain it over some coffee. I feel I'm going to need it soon enough…"

\/

One explanation later, Marco sat back in his chair and sighed. "That's a lot to take in…"

Hekapoo leaned forward, "So, any idea where we can start?"

Marco closed his eyes and tilted his head back, taking a deep breath. "An idea… We can start by asking at Butterfly Rest."

"Butterfly Rest?"

"The saloon in town. Run by the Butterfly family for a good while now, hence the name."

Hekapoo nodded slowly before picking up the pace a little. "That makes sense…"

"Okay, if that's the plan, we should get going now so we can make it to town before the saloon gets too full." He stood and walked around the wall to a back door.

Hekapoo followed him through the door and to a nearby stable. They approached a chestnut-coated mare with patches of white on the face. She watched as Marco grabbed a saddle from the wall and started to wrap the leather belting around the horse.

He turned to her as he did, "You ever ride before?"

Hekapoo thought for a while. "Not any horses…"

Marco nodded and stood back up, using the stirrups to get onto the horse's back. He used the reigns to move the horse out and held a hand down to her. "Come on up."

Hekapoo was somewhat used to riding behind Marco by this point, but the horse was not as accommodating to her attire as a dragon-cycle was. She had to sit with her legs off to one side and twisting her body a bit to hold onto his shoulders. She was caught off guard when the mare kicked a bit and took off.

Hekapoo had ridden with Marco often enough to have long since been used to travel like this. However, there were a handful of things that made this feel… off. For one thing, the horse was a very different beast to the dragon-cycle. The horse wasn't a bad creature for travel. A bit bumpier, but only by a bit. The strangest part, though, was her partner. As she held onto Marco's shoulders, it all felt wrong. Not wrong, per se, but definitely odd. Even in his adult form, she could always tell that Marco was a kind soul despite his jokes and adult-form's scars, accented by how he would occasionally look back or try to talk to make sure she was still there and alright. But this Marco felt different. His demeaner, his stance, the silence, the way his eyes stayed on the horizon… He felt out of place to her, like he wasn't himself. Hekapoo shook her head at that thought. This wasn't her Marco… Not _her_ Marco, rather the Marco from her realm… This was confusing as is…

About an hour had passed in silence and Hekapoo was getting bored. She leaned to the side and saw no sign of civilization on the horizon just yet. She sighed, and her boredom finally overcame her. "Hey… Mind if I ask you something?"

Marco looked back at her a second and then back to the world before him. "Sure. Go ahead."

"Why did that guy try to buy your land? If you don't mind my asking…"

"Nah… It's fine. If I had to guess, John would do what everyone else would, rip the place apart searching for gold…"

His silence after that made it clear that if Hekapoo wanted a conversation, it was up to her to keep asking questions. "Then, what's stopping him from going through your parents?"

Marco was silent for a few seconds. "Guess your dimension really is different…"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean, Miss Hekapoo, is that I'm on my own out here."

There were implications behind what he said, but she wasn't sure she wanted to think about it. In the end, she still asked, "As in… You moved out here and bought the property?"

"As in, I'm the last living Diaz in Echo Creek."

Hekapoo had a familiar feeling run up her spine. It was the same as when Queen Moon lost her mother to Toffee's attack on the castle. "Then… they're…

"Dead. Yes. Have been for about a year now… At least for Pa…"

"I'm sorry to bring it up… I didn't know…"

"It's fine. You get used to it out here."

"How do you get used to that?!" There was a level of indignation. She had seen so many people come and go during her life. Many of them had lost important people around them or have to give them up resigned to their fate during her trials. Hekapoo had seen what events like that had done to people of all kinds. None of them would ever say they could be used to the death of loved ones like that.

"Miss Hekapoo, how many people have you seen since we left?"

"What?"

"How many people have you seen since we left for town?"

"Um… none?"

"Right. Not too many people are willing to live out here. As a result, those who do don't have much in the way of governments to keep things in line. Are you following me so far?"

"I get it. Lawless outskirts often become hot beds for crime."

"Pretty much. Murderers are nothing new out here. There's also the lack of medical care. Makes it easy to end up six feet in the ground at the drop of a hat…"

"Then why live out here?"

"Why live anywhere, Miss Hekapoo? It's just how we are." He pulled back on the reigns and slowed their pace.

Hekapoo looked up to find they had arrived in town. As they moved down the street, they were attracting more than a few looks from the crowd. Okay… to be fair, she was drawing attention. Mothers moved their children behind their back as they passed. Hekapoo was slightly used to this. She would revel in the feeling any other time in various dimensions, but she was in a hurry and recognized this would make things difficult.

They stopped in front of a large, two story building. There was a large sign over the swinging doors with a picture of a butterfly flying around the words [Butterfly Rest]. Marco got down from the horse and tied the reigns to a post outside the building. "We're here."

"I can see that." Hekapoo dropped down onto the ground and the people around them took a step back. She turned with a slight glare at the people around them.

Marco grabbed a small satchel from his horse's saddlebag and tossed it to her. "You'll need this."

"What is it?"

"About $20. It should help get your information without making you a target."

"You going somewhere?"

"As a matter of fact, I need to take care of something else here. You can take care of yourself, can't you?"

"Of course, I can."

"Then, good luck." Marco walked off down the street and waved back to her as he did.

Hekapoo turned toward the saloon. Moving one of the doors out of the way, she entered the establishment. It looked like a large, single room tavern area with a few tables that seemed dedicated to gambling of some kind or another. She walked over to the counter and waited for the bartender to walk over.

After a while, a shorter man with longer blonde hair and a bushy beard walked over and crossed his arms, "How can I help you?" He looked rather familiar to Hekapoo, but a bit taller. He wore attire similar to other bartenders she had seen in her own world.

Before Hekapoo answered, a woman with light blue hair, wearing a style similar to Marco and John (likely a widespread style in this dimension), walked out. This woman helped put the mental puzzle pieces together to see that these were Moon and River Butterfly.

Hekapoo took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm looking for someone that might be able to help me with something."

River and Moon glanced toward one another before River added in, "Depends on what you need…" They were both on guard, likely because Hekapoo seemed so strange to them.

"I need help finding something that seems… out of place around here."

Moon looked skeptical, "That's… cryptic."

Hekapoo sighed. "It's kind of hard to explain…"

"Maybe I can help~" A young woman sat down next to Hekapoo. She wore a dark red dress with a pair of boots and black gloves. Her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail. She seemed familiar. In fact, Hekapoo had just met her. She was one of Star's friends from Earth.

"Is that right?" Hekapoo was skeptical of the human before her but decided to humor her. "Alright then, any ideas?"

"I could tell you, but that's not how things work out here. If you want something, you give something."

Hekapoo had met plenty of people like this in her travels. "Fine then. Since I'm pretty sure you're offering information and I'd have to do all of the actual work, I'm willing to pay you twenty dollars. Ten now, and ten after I find what I'm looking for."

The western Janna looked stunned a moment. "Right then… That sounds fair." After Hekapoo gave her half the promised total, she put the bills away and leaned onto the counter, resting her head in her hand. "So, something out of place then?"

"No matter where it is, it feels wrong here. Anything out there with a reputation like that?"

"Hmm… Now that you mention it… There was something not too long ago…"

They were interrupted by the sound of a gun shot from the streets. Hekapoo rushed outside, half expecting a storm or some kind of attack, having never heard the sound before. The only thing to meet her gaze was Marco with arm outstretched and holding the offending weapon. Across form him, a man clutched his own hand, blood flowing down from a wound clearly inflicted by Marco. Hekapoo couldn't help but look on in shock. It almost felt wrong seeing Marco cause such an injury.

Marco put his weapon away and walked over to Hekapoo, "Any luck?"

Hekapoo snapped back to the present and nodded, "Yeah. At least I better have." She turned back to Janna.

Janna had followed her out and looked between the two. "So… Diaz does know how to make friends~"

Hekapoo snapped her fingers to try to get back on topic. "Don't forget, I paid for information."

Janna nodded a second before clearing her throat. "Right… Well, word on the grape vine is that some big shot in the next town over had just such a thing stolen from his bank."

Hekapoo's eyes narrowed. "That's a bit of a problem."

"Not really," Marco started to untie the horse from the post, "There's only one gang big enough and with the huevos to pull that off."

Janna's look turned grim, "You can't be serious… You can't seriously think the two of you could take on the Red Hand."

"The what now?" Hekapoo thought the name sounded positively stupid.

"The Red Hand Gang," Marco finished getting their horse ready to ride out again, "so named for the saying, 'having blood on your hands.' They're a group of outlaws that have made the countryside their personal playground."

"Still a stupid name."

"Never said it wasn't." Marco placed himself on the horse's back and turned toward the western side of town. "You ready or not?"

Hekapoo took her seat on the horse behind Marco and they were off as quickly as they arrived. They crossed the semi-arid countryside at a full gallop. In time, they found themselves surrounded by mountains. Marco led the horse, and by extension Hekapoo, through a small pass in the mountains. A minute into the pass, he pulled back on the reigns and dismounted.

Once Hekapoo stepped back down, Marco sent the horse off from the area. "This is where things get messy."

"Sounds fine to me." Hekapoo pulled out her dimensional scissors and separated the halves to create two small swords. Fire licked at the steel as they walked down the pass.

They approached a small encampment in a valley between the mountains. Some men walked around the camp, most carrying weapons of some kind. They all looked like they hadn't had a decent night's sleep in days. It's very possible that they lived in the camp in the mountains rather than in town. This wouldn't be out of place in a mobile military force. However, their lack of uniforms or larger group structures gave away their true organizational structure. They were nothing more than a group of bandits and ne'er-do-wells. Hekapoo was going to charge in only to be held back by Marco.

He tapped her shoulder and pointed down into the camp. Among the men was someone who was clearly the leader of the band, a dark-haired, one armed man wearing a black poncho. His scars showed him to be a seasoned warrior and he walked with an air of superiority among the men. He walked with another man, dressed in a black outfit with greying hair.

Hekapoo looked confused, "Isn't that the guy from this morning? What was his name again?"

"John. And yes… that's him. Certainly explains how he got so wealthy so quickly…" Marco looked over to the one armed man. "And that guy…"

Hekapoo turned to Marco, "You know him?"

"We've met…" His voice was filled with anger.

"Okay then… question is, does this help us or… Wait?! Where are you going?"

Marco stood up and started to walk down into the camp. When he reached the edge of the camp he shouted, "HERNANDEZ!"

The one-armed man turned toward the shouting to find Marco walking toward him. John tried to hide himself away but knew he had been discovered. The one-armed man turned toward Marco and growled a bit, "And what have we here?"

"A son of a murdered father. My name is Marco Diaz and I'm here to avenge Rafael Diaz!" Marco moved his feet across the ground and let his hand hover over his holstered revolver.

John saw the situation unfolding and thought this would be the perfect time to deal with two birds using a single stone. He smirked and shouted out to the gang, "Double pay for whoever puts that kid in the dirt!"

The band of thieves all looked like they were seconds away from jumping Marco for the reward. But the one-armed man, whom was apparently named Miguel Hernandez, waved them all back and stepped forward. "So, a duel? You think that'll save your pa's honor or something?"

"No. I just want my chance to kill you for what you've done."

Hearing this, Hekapoo charged in and up to Marco. "Wait a second! Are you crazy?!"

Everyone around them looked on toward Hekapoo like she was the devil on Earth. They all moved away from Hekapoo and Marco, save for Miguel who stood his ground. The one-armed gunman stood there like nothing was different before him. He, however, also didn't move toward his gun. "So… you're the old sheriff's kid, then?"

Marco's anger remained as he spoke. "That's right! And now he'll have justice!"

"I've killed too many for justice to serve them all, boy." Miguel dropped into a stance similar to Marco's, "Is it really justice you're after?"

The world around them seemed to slow. There was nothing else around them that mattered. Even Hekapoo felt inconsequential in that moment. She tried to move, tried to diffuse the situation, but her actions were halted hearing three gunshots ring out over of the valley. A metallic ping followed as Miguel's gun fell onto the rocks. Each of Miguel's limbs had been hit, each having a bleeding wound robbing him of strength. He fell to his knees, unable to support himself anymore.

Marco still had his gun pointed at the defeated Miguel, a thin veil of smoke still emanating from the barrel. He took a few breathes before he suddenly jerked forward to shoot him again. Marco halted when Hekapoo ran into his way and blocked his shot.

Marco's anger was boiling over again, "Out of the way!"

"Marco! You have to stop!"

"Get… out… of MY WAY!"

"Marco! This isn't you! You don't want to do this!"

"The hell I don't! I want nothing more than to put him down! This is justice for everyone he's killed!" Marco pushed his way passed Hekapoo and placed the barrel of the gun directly on Miguel's forehead.

Another person from the gang built up the courage to try to shoot Marco for his payday, only for his rifle to be cut in half by a Hekapoo clone. This sent the camp into a screaming panic. Everyone in the gang, including John, ran off as if to escape the Devil himself.

"Marco! This isn't how justice is served! You need to bring him in to stand trial!"

"No! Last time someone tried that, he shot my father! This is necessary!"

Miguel seemed calm in that moment. He was unafraid of Marco. A cursory glance of the situation showed that Marco wasn't really holding the gun onto Miguel's head. Rather, the one-armed gunman was holding his head up to Marco's shaking pistol. "Then why am I alive right now?"

Marco's resolve shook a moment, "What?"

"You were able to shoot my limbs without killing me… I could tell your first shot was to my hand, disarming me, and the next two took out my legs. All before I could return fire… You could have killed me three times over before I ever get the chance. Yet you didn't."

"Shut up!"

"You're just like your father…"

"SHUT UP! You don't deserve to talk about him! He sparred you! Let you live!"

"He took my arm from me…"

"He let you live! And it got him killed! I won't make the same mistake!" Marco's hand was shaking. It was difficult to tell whether it was from rage or hesitation. He had to use his other hand to keep his weapon steady.

Miguel never flinched during it all. "Then get it over with, kid. I can't fight back, I can't move, and you've had that gun to my head for a good long while now. So, either kill me or take me in."

Marco's shaking started to subside. His arm fell to the side and his shoulders sagged, tears beginning to fall from his eyes.

"Honestly… You made the right choice kid…" Miguel was later found by the Echo Creek law enforcement tied to one of the gang's horses with a note reading, [Courtesy of Marco Diaz.]

Meanwhile, Marco was half-heartedly helping Hekapoo search through the camp for her prize. His mind went back to the events that just unfolded. His heart and mind told him he did the right thing. But he thought back to how he felt in the moment. Would he have been able to hold himself back without Hekapoo getting in the way? Would he have been able to live with himself if he couldn't? His thoughts were interrupted, and he dug into a larger crate. "I think I found it!"

Hekapoo ran over to him, "You sure?"

"Well…" Marco pulled out a crystalline shard, clearly a broken piece of a larger structure, that glowed in the desert sun with a brilliant orange hue. "It feels kind of wrong holding it, so it fits your description."

Hekapoo took the crystal in hand. To her, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. "Yeah… I guess this must be it." She turned her attention back to Marco. "Thank you for helping me out."

"Don't worry about it."

Hekapoo nodded. In some ways, it was like…

"I'm going to stop you right there."

Hekapoo blinked in confusion, "What?"

"I could see it in your eyes… You're comparing me to the Marco you know. It's the same look you gave me when you arrived and after the duel with Miguel… I'm not the Marco from your world. So, stop comparing us." He stretched his back and took in a deep breath. "Best for you to get going. Memory serves, you said you were in a hurry…"

Hekapoo slowly nodded and turned toward the mountain's pass. "Right…" She ran off at a speed that made her seem to disappear. It took her only a few minutes to arrive back at the ranch and the portal to send her back. She looked down at the shard before locking her grip around it again. She took a deep breath and stepped back through the portal to home. She had a bit to think about when she got back…

/\

 **King: Hello again~ Hope you enjoyed the chapter. It took a little, but I got it out.**


	5. Kelly: Titan Hunter

**King: This... took way too long. First I start this chapter. Then I decided I didn't like it and tried to start a new one, feeling like I would come back. I didn't like that a good way through and deleted that to write this again... Anyway, I hope you enjoy all the same. I already have the next idea, so fingers crossed the next chapter comes out sooner.**

 **/\**

Kelly fell from her portal location and landed onto a hard, leather-like surface. She sat up and rubbed her head, reorienting herself. She looked around, finding herself in something resembling military barracks. The leather she rested on was a cot, meant for sleeping in the room. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable bed, but she's slept on worse. She jumped down onto the floor and heard the wood beneath her crack. She jumped to the side in time to avoid the section of the floor caving in before her. She looked down to find that the barracks were built in a system of trees. She decided to make her way down the trees to the forest floor beneath her.

When she landed, she looked around at the plant life around her. The jungle was vast and dense around her. Many of the plants looked like gargantuan versions of Mewnian plants. She tried to find some sort of comfort in that familiarity. However, this feeling fled her body when she felt a weak tremor. And then another. And another. Footsteps of a very large beast.

"Crap."

Kelly was able to duck to the side as a massive foot shook the ground. The creature it belonged to had to be the size of a house! It resembled a lizard, but with large spines out of its back and a massive set of hooked spikes on its tail. It reminded her of the 'dinosaurs' Star told her about from Earth, but it was different from what she described. For one thing, the creature looked more like a common lizard than what Star told her they looked like. The beast lumbered on, seemingly not noticing her. Her hair helped her blend in while hiding in forest shadows, so it made sense on a certain level. That, or the beast could tell she was there and just didn't care. Kelly could see a few wounds on the creature's back: large gashes in its hide, a few smaller punctures, a set of arrows protruding from its upper thigh, all of which were bleeding. Watching it walk, she saw it was limping slightly. She knew a hunt when she saw it. Whatever this thing was, it was a target.

A part of her wanted to take up her sword and join the hunt. She was practically raised to be a warrior, and that included hunting at times. However, she fought this feeling to ensure she remained hidden. The hunted are often followed by their hunters. She didn't want to risk the hunter's being hostile. She hid away as best she could and watched the beast.

Sure enough, the hunters arrived soon after. They were all dressed in some rather heavy-looking armor. Kelly thought it was a little odd, until she noticed something off about the armor. The suits of armor of two of the hunters had no sheen, no polish. The coloration reminded her of sculpted bone. The other was adorned in armor that reminded her of the beast's hide. The three were using some kind of apparatus on their arms to move quickly through the trees. One of the bone armored hunters landed on the creature and drew a massive sword from their back. Something snapped on the blade and the sword turned into a giant ax. Kelly found it hard to look away from the weapon. The hunter buried the sword into the creature's shoulder and forced the beast to the ground. The second hunter in bone-like armor appeared up in one of the trees and drew a bow and arrow. Loosing the arrow, a strange powder broke on contact and the beast began to slow down. The last hunter dropped down and buried a smaller blade into the creature's skull to end the hunt.

Kelly was amazed by what she had seen. Their teamwork was incredible and their hunting skills were unrivaled. She watched on as they started to carve the carcass up. But… there was only two of them. Where did the third hunter go?

Kelly was kicked out her hiding place, her hair-tie falling off, by the missing hunter; the one with the bow. The hunter pointed an arrow at Kelly. "Can you speak?" The hunter sounded familiar. It was muffled, so it was hard to tell, but it was there.

Kelly turned on her back, realizing her hair now covered her body like a cloak. "Yeah. Um… can you hand me my hair-tie?"

Now able to see the hunter, Kelly could see the hunter's armor was scratched and chipped. It was clearly old armor. The hunter found her hair-tie and handed it down to her. "Stand up slowly."

Kelly followed the hunter's instructions and started to tie up her mass of hair.

The hunter never lowered the weapon. "Now, what are you doing out here?"

Kelly chuckled a little, "Would you believe I just sort of… dropped in?"

The hunter wasn't amused. "No. I wouldn't."

"Sorry… Just trying to ease the situation."

The hunter shouted off toward the other two. "Hey! We got a native! I think?"

The hunter in the non-bone armor looked up toward Kelly, "Native? This place is supposed to be uninhabited. Is this another dumb joke To-" The lead hunter froze seeing Kelly, "Tom, step away from here, now."

Kelly looked back to the bone-clad hunter in surprise, "Tom?"

The hunter stepped back, but kept his arrow aimed at Kelly's heart. "Why? What's going on?"

The lead hunter walked up and looked over Kelly, who was nervously trying to seem unthreatening. The hunter looked over the remaining bone-armor hunter, "Send a message back to Captain Johansen. He'll want to see this."

Kelly tried to raise a question to them, "Um…" But she was quickly silenced by Tom's bow hitting the back of her head.

\/

When Kelly came to, she found herself tied up and suspended over a forest. Wait, the forest was moving… No. She was moving. She looked up and nearly had a heart attack. Above her was a giant bird-like creature that was likely part reptile. Looking to the other side, she found the lead hunter using a rope, which was also holding her to the creature, with their helmet removed. She saw a familiar head of turquoise hair. Beneath that was a pale-skinned young man with burn marks on his left cheek. She couldn't help but think he was familiar. After a while, he severed the connection and they both fell toward the ground.

To Kelly's surprise, since she wasn't paying attention to it at the time, the fall was short and they landed on something resembling a dockyard, just in the middle of a forest area. Her awe was short lived as Tom, now without his own helmet which revealed he looked extremely similar to Star's demon boyfriend, picked her up off the ground and slung her over his shoulder. The group started to walk off toward what looked like a mass of banners, all depicting a dragon skull with dual swords on either side.

When they arrived, Tom set Kelly down in a chair before a table. A map depicted a massive island, or a small continent. There were a number of flags and other pins placed in the parchment. All the flags had the same symbol as the banners nearby. A metallic ping caught Kelly's attention and she turned her head toward a door to the side.

Out from the door, walked a shorter man with golden blonde hair. He dressed similarly to the hunters, in a sort of armor likely made from the local wild life. He looked like a grizzled version of King River. The man walked over and sat down opposite Kelly. He glared at her a moment before speaking, "This is quite the predicament, isn't it?"

Kelly looked around, more than a little confused. "Uh… What?"

The man took out a small notebook. "You are Kelly, right? Star's friend?"

"Um… Yes?" Kelly wasn't sure where this was going just yet.

"Quite… However, my file says you're supposed to be out in the field. In full armor. On the other side of the continent."

Kelly blinked hearing that. "I… don't really know how to explain that."

"I have a theory, actually." The lead hunter from before walked up. Without the helmet muffling, he sounded (and looked) very familiar. He oddly reminded her of Tad of all people. No surfer-like accent, but the voice was still similar.

Captain River nodded, "Go on."

Tad gestured toward Kelly. "Kelly is supposed to be on the other side of the continent. I bet if we look into the files in the camp, she still is."

"What are you implying, Tad?"

"The resemblance is too uncanny and her just appearing out of nowhere in an uninhabited forest is too odd."

"Oh, for the… Is this that multiverse theory thing again?"

"Sir. We can't just ignore this possibility."

"It a crack pot theory at this point. You've spent too much time with Omnitraxus."

"Actually…" Kelly got their attention after cutting the rope around her with a weapon she kept in her hair. She returned the weapon to her hair and looked over to both men. "He's not wrong."

After Kelly explained her situation, Tad had a look that could be a combination of smug and excited. River was straight-up confused for a while but regained himself by the end of her explanation. He sighed and nodded, "Okay… That's an odd story, but that trick with your hair more or less proves your not normal around here…"

Tad rolled his eyes, "Wording aside, we do believe you about the magic portal things… but we haven't heard about anything that matches your description, vague as it is…"

Kelly frowned hearing that, "Is there anyone else I can ask?"

River gestured around them. "Everyone here comes back from the field with something they don't report. As long as they bring in what they are tasked with in the hunt, they tend to keep whatever else is out there to themselves if needed. Your problem is that there's a lot of us and we're all moving around constantly."

Tad looked deep in thought as River spoke. "Maybe…"

River and Kelly turned toward Tad as he spoke.

Tad, now noticing he had spoken aloud, cleared his throat. "If it seems broken, someone might have tried to take it to Hekapoo."

River rubbed his chin hearing that. "That would make sense…"

Kelly looked between the two, "Okay. I'll ask Hekapoo then. Where can I find her?"

Tad kept his finger on his chin. "On a hunt. You could try asking Marco, but…" He trailed off, leaving his thought unfinished.

"Okay. Then I'll start with Marco. Assuming he's here…"

\/

Kelly had been pointed in Marco's direction in the campsite. Apparently, he was a big deal in the camp; a high rank hunter and a skilled blacksmith on top of it. He often helped work the forge when needed. The smiths there hadn't seen him that day, so they directed her to his personal forge near his quarters. As she walked up to the site, she saw steam rise up from behind a small wooden building. She understood the process enough to know he was likely cooling the metal. Kelly walked around the building and found the young man standing by a small forge. He had just finished the molding and had moved to the grindstone nearby.

He reminded her a lot of the Marco she knew. Dark hair, red top, a bit toned. The mole under his right eye seemed to have been replaced by a scar which crossed over said eye. His attire seemed to fit into the category of leather armor, save for the red vest-like cloth he used to accent his style.

Kelly walked up slowly, "Excuse me. Are you Marco?"

The young man turned toward her for a second. She could now better see his features. Sure enough, it was Marco. However, he was also very different. His face was lacking in the greater emotional nuances. Basically, he seemed more mellow; no nervous smiles, no twitching, no stutters, no shock. Nothing. He was clearly far from emotionless, but it was still a bit jarring. More so than his scars and the fact that his left eye was covered by an eyepatch. "Depends on who's asking."

Kelly took a breath. It was weird seeing Marco like this, even if it wasn't the Marco she knew. "My name is Kelly. I'm here looking for something that your commander said you might have information on."

Marco had turned back to the grindstone and finished a small blade. He picked up another and locked them together, creating a pair of scissors. "I make no promises. But I can try." He placed the scissors on a cloth resting on the table and turned his body toward her. "What are you looking for?"

Kelly explained her situation and what she was looking for. When she was done, she got ready to prove her point with a hand near her hair. As she spoke, she started to move to grab a large sword to prove the presence of magic, "I know it all sounds crazy, but I can…"

"Sounds about right."

This surprised her. Kelly looked back to Marco. "What does?"

"I believe you." He turned back to the scissors and seemed to be tinkering with something.

"You do? Just like that?"

Marco finished his work and took the scissors in hand. "Magic is always a weird thing. Most people don't even think it's real, but it's hard to deny." He opened the scissors and slashed at the air, opening a small portal. "Especially when you can do that."

Kelly was in shock. After a while, she nodded, getting back into the moment. "Okay… That makes things easier. So, can you help me?"

Marco closed the portal and set the scissors down. "In theory, yes. H-poo would likely have a better idea where to look or who to ask…"

Kelly raised an eyebrow, "H-poo?"

"Hekapoo. She's a researcher who dabbles in hunting. Most people would tell you it's the other way around, but that's because everyone here is a hunter in some way."

Kelly had heard of Hekapoo, only meeting her before they entered the portals. She knew that she was a member of the Magical High Commission, the forger of the dimensional scissors, and guardian of said dimensional portals. "So, um… do you know where to find the memory thing?"

"Not quite, no. However, we can look through the records and see if it ever came up." He walked over to the small shack and opened the door. After a moment, he returned with a small book with a fireball design on the front. "Let's see…"

Kelly had a thought appear in her mind. "Does that belong to Hekapoo?"

Marco looked back up toward her, "Yeah. Why?"

Kelly was silent a moment. "Why do you have that?"

"Are you here to ask about my personal life or find your weird memory thing?"

"Alright… Forget I asked." Kelly turned away at that. It was kind of jarring with Marco acting like that. It was a different Marco, dimensionally speaking, but they were still very similar to the point of genuine confusion. She took a seat nearby as he searched through the book. Of course, without an answer to her question, Kelly started to pass this time thinking up why he would have that book. _Maybe he was this Hekapoo's book-keeper. She was apparently a researcher first. She likely needed someone to help keep track of any notes. Maybe he stole the book. No… He was too nonchalant about it for that._ Then there was the strangest of the options/rationale her mind cooked up. _Maybe they're dating._ Kelly brushed that one off pretty quickly. _Nah. Hekapoo's like… thousands of years… old… Wait. This is another dimension. She's probably human in this reality. And the two do seem to get along pretty well in her own reality._

"Hey!"

Kelly nearly jumped into next week. She did, however, fall backward.

Marco raised a brow, "You were blanking out on me. I've been trying to tell you that someone did find something that fits what you described."

"Really?!" Kelly immediately stood back up in excitement.

"Don't get too excited. Your problems start with who found it."

"Start?"

"One step at a time. So, the person you're looking for is an annoying old man by the name of Glosseryck. Good news is that he's offering your item as a hunt reward."

Kelly crossed her arms and her face turned determined, "What's the bad news?"

"You need to hunt a Titan Fly."

"Titan Fly?" Kelly chuckled a little, "That doesn't sound so bad."

"That's a codename until we give it a better one, but we can't research it due to how dangerous it is."

Kelly's chuckle turned nervous. "How bad is it, exactly?"

What we do know, is that it's a 50 feet tall and 100 feet long draconic beast that breathes a poisonous vapor. It's hide has proven damn near impossible to break and it can kill you by smacking you with its tail. That's what he wants hunted."

Kelly was shaking a little. The description had really gotten to her. She lowered her head. "W… Where can I find it?"

Marco raised an eyebrow toward her, "Pardon?"

Kelly raised her head and revealed her excited smile. This was the kind of thing she lived for. The adventure! The hunt! This was going to be awesome!

Marco was surprised by her face for a while. After a moment, he started to chuckle and then burst out into a fit of laughter. "That's quite the look. Alright then. I can take you to the Titan Fly's last known location."

"Seriously?!" Kelly jumped up with stars in her eyes. She was really to hunt!

"Not yet." Marco placed a hand on her head and forced her to sit back down.

"Why not?!"

"Because H-poo would kill me if we pull this off without her. Barring that, we'll need to prepare for this. Your story made it clear you're not from around here. And while I like the enthusiasm, this isn't the kind of thing you can rush into to start a hunt. Lucky for you, H-poo should be back soon enough. Until then, sharpen your blades and gather up any supplies you think might help. I'm going to pick up some potions, rations, and some ammunition." Marco walked off, leaving Kelly alone at his forge.

Kelly immediately set about making sure her swords, knives, spears, and other assorted bladed weapons she stored in her hair were as sharp as possible. She had gotten through a little over half her armory before a voice called out from behind her.

"And… you are?" Kelly turned around to find a woman standing there in full, bright orange armor, clearly made from local creatures the woman had hunted. Her deep red hair was tied up in a ponytail and her piercing yellow eyes made Kelly feel small and weak. Her voice commanded authority and her posture told Kelly that she more than earned that authority. "Well?"

Kelly jumped up, her body going stiff. "I'm Kelly! I'm here to hunt the Titan Fly… thing…" She started to calm a little. "It's kind of a long story."

"Hunting the Titan Fly is dangerous enough as it is…" The woman took a step forward and cracked her knuckles, "But trespassing on my home is a whole other matter."

"Wait! I didn't…!"

"Calm down H-poo." This world's Marco walked passed the woman and set down a massive bag of items. "She came here looking for me to help her find something while you were out."

The woman, now confirmed to be Hekapoo, relaxed her body and placed her hands at her hips. "Really?" Everything about her had changed. The authority melted away and her stance dropped to one a bit more laidback. "That gem thing Glosseryck got?"

"That's the one."

"So… she knows what the Titan Fly is, right?"

"I've warned her of the general idea, yes."

Kelly didn't necessarily mind that they were talking like she wasn't there in that moment. She was just watching the two work. Marco unloaded the bag of items and toss a few over to Hekapoo, who would catch them like it was a reflex. The teamwork just to prepare was perfected. Kelly had never seen synergy between two people like that.

"Head's up."

Kelly was caught off guard and a small jar hit her in the jaw. She was able to catch it before it dropped. She looked at the jar, finding the glowing green liquid inside to be a little… odd.

Marco explained things as he kept unpacking, "That's a healing potion. It can heal pretty much any wound you get. So long as you're not dead…" He tossed her a potion that was a blue-violet color. "That's a mega-antidote. Should stave off the poison for a while. But we only have a few of those, so don't use them unless you have to. What kind of weapon do you work with?"

"Swords."

Marco turned to her and recoiled a bit seeing the massive collection of blades she had nearby. "Okay… H-poo," he handed Hekapoo a bag, "your ammunition."

Hekapoo opened the bag and removed the ammo, sticking them into a special pouch at her right side. "Did you get the piercers?"

"Yep."

"Stickies?"

"Check."

"Spread?"

"Naturally."

Kelly was a little confused about what they were talking about. She just started to file her swords back into her hair.

"New cannon?"

Marco smiled and walked over to the forge. Kelly watched as he produced something that looked like a massive crossbow with a front-plated shield. It looked like it was made of the same material as Hekapoo's armor. "Baby, you know it~"

Hekapoo smirked, "What would I do without you?"

"Wait in a long line of weapon and armor orders at the main smithy."

"True." Hekapoo took the weapon in hand. She pressed a small lever on the side down and the crossbow folded itself up. She lifted the weapon over one of her shoulder and placed it on an apparatus on her back to hold it.

Kelly had to know now. "So… are you two dating, or…?"

"We're hunting partners." Hekapoo got the rest of her items in order as she spoke, "We've been working together for more than a few years now."

Marco picked up the conversation topic, "We've built up enough of a team dynamic between each other that we ended up living and working together more often than not. Saves on gold pay to pay upkeep on the shack and let us own the forge here."

Hekapoo looked over to the forge with a proud smile. After a second, her face turned to one of confusion. "What's with the scissors?"

Kelly could practically see the shiver go up Marco's spine. Marco was shaking a little but kept working on his pack.

Hekapoo walked over and picked up the scissors. "They look nice… but not really too efficient for more than cutting paper. Can't even work leather…" She opened the scissors and made a small slashing motion, opening a portal. Seeing this, she jumped back in a panic and held up the scissors like a knife. "What the hell?!"

Marco jumped up and grabbed the blades. He spun and used them to close the opened portal. What followed next was silence, a long and awkward silence. Hekapoo looked toward Marco like he had grown a second head for a moment. Marco took a deep breath and turned back to the two. "We need to talk."

Kelly waited outside, continuing to sharpen her blades, as the two spoke inside the shack. She could only imagine what Hekapoo must be going through, learning that magic actually exists in this world. Kelly finished her preparations as the two walked back out. Kelly stood up and returned her blades to her hair. "So…?"

Hekapoo took a deep breath. "Okay… Magic is real." She pointed toward Kelly, "You're from another reality," Her hand turned toward Marco, "and you're some kind of dimensional guardian. That about right?"

Marco shrugged. "More or less."

"Okay… This is a lot to take in, but we have a hunt to focus on."

"Ready when you are."

\/

The arid mountain almost seemed to glow with a golden hue. Above, the summit was covered in ice and snow. Below, the plant life started to sprout into form, slowly increasing in number until it became a massive forest at the foot of the mountain. A small blade appeared in mid air and moved downward, forming a rounded red-orange portal. The armored forms of Kelly and the hunting duo of Marco and Hekapoo. Marco turned back and closed the portal after they were all through.

Hekapoo took in a deep breath. "You know… while it saves time, I think I prefer the travel, you know?"

"Why do you think I never use them?" Marco put his dimensional scissors away.

Kelly looked up around her, "So… Where is this Titan Fly?"

"Eager one, aren't you?" Hekapoo smirked and placed her hands on her hips. "This is the last place it was seen. Its nest is likely nearby, but we're not too sure where it would be. Yet~" Hekapoo brought out a small jar and opened the lid. Doing so released a small swarm of glowing flies. They flew off and about the area. "The scout flies should give us a lay of the land and give us an idea of where to start…" The flies flew back toward her, now glowing a bright red. They all retreated back into the jar, "…looking?"

A massive body fell onto the ground in front of them. Standing before them was a colossal silver-scaled dragon. A pair of twisted horns stretched out from its skull and its sharp, bloody teeth were bared toward the group. A low, guttural growl escaped from between its jaws. Its wings stretched upward, making it seem nearly three times its actual size. The group dodged a swipe from the beast's arm.

Kelly landed and drew a sword, "I take it that's a Titan Fly!"

Marco drew his own weapon, a pair of twin swords, "That's him all right!"

Hekapoo had to land and right herself before she drew her weapon, the massive crossbow clicking into form and she pulled the bolt back like it was nothing. A massive green casing fell out from the weapon's side. Kelly nearly had a heart attack seeing the casing, which had to be the size of her arm at minimum. Hekapoo leveled the bow toward the beast and fired one of the shells. The casing that flew out this time was a silver casting. The shell landed on the beast's neck, causing it to roar at them. Hekapoo smirked as the shell stuck in and its fuse burned. Soon after, the shell burst into small razors that dug into the creature's neck, making it angrier.

Marco shot a grappling hook around the beast's horn and attacked with his swords at the now weakened area on the neck. Kelly followed suit and hacked at the beast's arm, ducking as it tried to fight back. Hekapoo fired a few more shells; some silver bladed, some purple mists, some brown sticky shells that explode, and so on. With each, Kelly and Marco attack the weaker points. The Titan Fly roared and released a poisonous mist. Thankfully, the mist was heavy air and sunk downward without spreading into the air, making it easier to avoid. It tried to thrash at the trio, but they had long since spread out to avoid such assaults. The beast continued to take the coordinated attack from the three before it decided enough was enough. It stretched out its wings and started to take off.

Marco tossed a canister the size of his head to Hekapoo, who refolded her weapon to place the item into her weapon. She snapped the weapon back together and, after a moment to aim, fired the shell's payload up toward the dragon and it stuck into the beast's wing. After a few seconds of bright glowing, it burst into a massive explosion, ripping the wing in half, and sending the beast back down to the earth below. The dragon-like creature started to lash out in desperation, flailing wildly at the three. They all dodged the flailing and continued their assault on the beast. The creature's bleeding was starting to slow its movements. Soon, it was losing the will to fight and collapsed. It's breathing was heavy, but it was still very much alive.

Hekapoo moved her weapon back to her back and turned to Kelly, "Care to do the honors?"

Kelly sprouted a massive grin. She would be the one to secure the kill of the hunt. This was a major status in big hunts like this. She walked, almost ran, toward the beast, avoiding its direct line of sight incase it decided to let out more poison and positioned herself to the side of its head. She raised her blade and brought the beast's suffering to an end. Soon after, Hekapoo and Marco walked over to carve the creature, dividing the relevant pieces into groups and preparing them for transport.

Marco finished packing everything away when he turned and handed a giant, bloodied silver scale to Kelly. "You'll need that for proof to get your reward."

Kelly looked at the scale and back to Marco, "What about you two? You probably did more in the hunt than I did?"

Marco chuckled and patted the bag of scales and bone, "Trust me, we've got more than enough of a reward."

\/

As the group returned, Kelly turned in the scale with a feeling of pride. She was handed a small, jagged aqua-colored gemstone. She smiled as it almost felt like a familiar item. Like it came from her own home. She placed the gem into her hair, in a location she could easily access, and started walking off to the gates. She believed the portal would be in the same location as it dropped her off. She stopped at the gate when someone called out to her. Hekapoo and Marco walked up toward her before she left. Marco was carrying a large leather bag about the size of one of her swords.

Hekapoo smirked and placed a hand on her hip, "Glad we caught you before you left. Though a little bittersweet… If you had left, I had dibs."

"Dibs?"

Marco and Hekapoo smiled to one another. Marco placed the bag vertically on the ground and removed some leather strapping to allow the bag to fall. Inside was a double-bladed broadsword. It was a beautiful, Damascus-style metal that reminded her of the Titan Fly. The hilt was a sparkling silver wrapped in green-stained leather that matched her hair.

Kelly had never seen a more beautiful blade in her life, "Is… is that…"

"All yours." Marco reoriented the sword, placing his hands under the blade and guard, to hand her the sword. "A little gift from us, made from the Titan for the Titan Killer."

Kelly took the blade and found that the guard had an inscription on both sides reading, "[Fatal Wings Rise]. What does that mean?"

The two smiled and directed her attention to a large banner on the nearby wall. It was adorned with the same dragon skull as the others, but this one had a ribbon with the same phrase beneath the design. Hekapoo smiled, "As far as we're concerned, you're a part of the 13th Hunters Corps. And if you don't find your way back, then it's a parting gift to remember us by."

Kelly looked down at the sword. "This is an incredible sword… and I really appreciate it. But how did you finish it so quickly."

"Turns out Marco has his own dimension where a minute here is around 2 years there. That helped."

Kelly nodded, remembering the dimension her Hekapoo had and how it effected Marco in her reality. "Makes sense…" She smiled down to the sword and placed it away in her personal armory. "Thank you both!"

"Don't worry about it. Like I said, you're one of us now. As a result, you deserve the best weapon that can be made from your kill."

The three shared a moment, a quick embrace, and Kelly waved back to the two as she left for home with memory shard in hand.


	6. Moon Over the Battlefield

**King: New chapter in record time~! This is a dangerous precedent to create, but I'm happy to do so. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.**

/\

Moon fell out of her portal and floated using her Butterfly Form (for lack of a better word). When she did, she felt… different. Like the weight of the years she'd lived had fallen away. Choosing to ignore this for now, she flew up to check the area around her. The immediate area was an arid desert with multiple rock formations. A few trees dotted the landscape around her. Out in the distance, she saw large city similar to ones Star told her about with the tall buildings. Deciding this was the best place to start, Moon flew off toward the city. Nearing the area, she noticed the windows of many of the buildings were shattered. She saw the road was overly cracked and a few buildings were starting to break down. Everything told her this place was abandoned. Moon landed in the road and returned to her normal form. She started to walk through the city, looking around for anything important or possibly dangerous. She heard something off in the distance and moved closer while staying out of sight. She jumped up in one of the broken buildings and looked out toward the source of the sound.

She found a small group of people sitting around a fire just outside one of the crumbling buildings. She recognized a number of the figures, even at this distance. She recognized all of them as various knights and squires from Mewni. They, also, all wore a dark blue uniform with the Mewnian emblem emblazoned on their chests and upper arms. They seemed to be armed with weapons she only ever really heard of. They all had firearms of some form. As they walked around, she found one of the individuals, a red haired young girl, run out and shout something to the group. They all instantly stood and scrambled to get their weapons ready. Moon watched as they bunkered into position.

A cloud of dust could be seen on the horizon. A vehicle was approaching extremely quickly. Moon watched as one of the soldiers loaded a large tube of some kind and pointed it toward the car. The soldier fired a rocket off toward the car, exploding on impact. The armored vehicle crashed into the middle of the road and a few soldiers in green uniforms filed out and behind the vehicle. Each side was trying to shoot the other through their cover.

Moon frowned. She knew searching through a warzone would be almost impossible. She'd have to temporarily pick a side to maximize her chance to actually find the memory shard. As she watched the battle, she decided to take up the cause of the Mewni soldiers. She jumped out from her position and onto the street. Upon landing, she sent a magical shockwave through the ground and pushing the destroyed vehicle away and knocking all of the green-uniformed soldiers to the ground. The Mewni soldiers were in shock but were able to use the moment to capture the incapacitated enemy.

One of the soldiers, the red head that warned the others walked up toward Moon. "Not that we don't appreciate the help, but civilians aren't supposed to be out here." Moon read over the soldier's name tag, [Higgs].

"Well, Higgs, I'm here searching for something and…"

Moon was interrupted by a massive tremor, causing all of the soldiers to shake and attempt to stay standing. Before Moon could continue, another tremor, this one a bit weaker, shook the area. And another. And another. Almost like footsteps.

Higgs looked around after the first tremor. When the second hit, her eyes showed true horror that likes of which Moon could only say she'd ever seen once; during the war with Toffee's forces. Higgs ran over to the group and shouted for a radio. Everyone else had already made their way toward an underground metro tunnel. Moon didn't know what was going on. She chose to run with them, if only to try to get an idea of the situation. A situation she learned full well when a building collapsed in front of them, cutting them off from the tunnel.

Moon was forced to look upward in horror. A giant! An actual giant! Clad in steel grey and tan armor, it had one bright, glowing pink eye. In its hands was a firearm of its own. The horrifying aspect being that it was the size of a car! The barrel alone had to be around 120 millimeters wide. Its shoulders were adorned with a shield on one shoulder and a spiked pauldron. It looked down toward them and pointed its weapon at them. It seemed to speak to them, " **DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY!** " It sounded mechanical, like through a megaphone or voice enhancement spell.

Moon watched as all the Mewnian soldiers slowly placed their guns on the ground and raised their hands upward. Moon could have fought back, but she didn't want to risk the situation either. If this really was a giant, she didn't want to take the chance. She raised her hands as well.

Soon after, the green uniformed soldiers stood and pushed all of the Mewni soldiers to their knees. However, they weren't sure what to do about Moon. The giant looked toward her and stared for a moment. " **SET HER ASIDE FOR QUESTIONING.** "

The soldiers took Moon by her wrists and moved her to the side while the others were moved inside of the buildings. Moon watched as the giant lowered itself to a knee and its chest opened up. Inside was a young man in a red uniform, similar to the green uniforms, accented by a short black cape and a helmet obscuring his face. A cord lowered him down toward the ground level. Once grounded, he walked up toward Moon. He was around the same height as Moon. Strangely, Moon felt she recognized the young man. Something in the back of her mind, but she couldn't place it in that moment.

The young man walked passed her and kicked the back of her knees, forcing her to drop. Two of the green uniformed soldiers held her in place as he walked back in front of her. Moon chose to play along for the moment. It could be an excellent opportunity to gather some information. The young man bent down to look her in the eye, a power play of sorts. If he had to bend down to meet her eyes, it placed him as the party in charge more effectively than just looking straight ahead. He didn't say anything for a moment before finally speaking, "Tell me, why are you here?"

Moon froze a moment. His voice was too familiar. "Marco?"

The young man recoiled a moment before removing his helmet. He was, in fact, Marco Diaz. Even his nametag confirmed this reading, [Lt. M. Diaz]. He looked so much like the Marco from her reality. However, there was something different. His eyes held no care. His was a broken gaze; one she knew well from the mirror during the days after her 'darkest spell.' But, unlike Moon, there was no single moment in his eyes. He was not cracked, he was shattered. A break only caused by war. Moon wanted to recoil seeing this. It was something she thought impossible, seeing that gaze on Marco's face, but she was stuck for the moment.

In her moment of shock, Marco grabbed her jaw and turned her head slightly to the side. He stared at her cheek marks for a moment before releasing her and nodding to the soldiers. After a moment, they let go and allowed her to stand again. Marco glared toward her as she did as he spoke, "What brings a royal to the front lines?" There was genuine distain in his voice.

Moon was taken aback. "I…"

Marco stared her down, "I thought the Mewmans didn't have a princess…"

"What?" Moon froze for a moment. _Princess? Wait… Aren't I taller than Marco?_ She looked over to the side for a second in this thought and something caught her eye. She did a double take toward a shattered window. The large section of glass remaining had enough of its sheen to allow her to see her reflection. She was a teenager again! She looked exactly like she had when she faced Toffee. "How the…"

Marco raised an eyebrow before following her gaze. He turned back to her, "What's wrong? You're acting like you've seen a ghost."

Moon nodded, "Something like that." She turned back to Marco. "So, what now?"

"Now… The soldiers will be moved to a nearby military prison. You, however… I don't know. You're not a uniformed soldier, but I get the feeling your also not the princess. But the way you carry yourself shows a level of regality you don't see in the army or civilian populations. Who are you?"

Moon decided that now was as good a time as any to speak up. "I am Moon Butterfly. Queen of a Mewni from another reality."

No one spoke after this. No one really sure how to take what they had heard. After a few minutes of motionless silence, one of Marco's soldiers walked up next to him, "Sir… She's clearly disturbed. It would be best to move on and…"

Marco raised his hand to silence the soldier. "When we arrived, I saw a creature jump down from one of the buildings. A blue-skinned humanoid with six arms and butterfly wings. When it hit the ground, your cover was destroyed. A moment later, the creature was gone, and she was in its place." Marco turned back to Moon, "That creature _was_ you, I take it."

Moon shifted into her Butterfly form and stood up as her wings knocked the soldiers holding her down away. She stood silent for a few minutes before returning to her normal form. "Does that answer your question?"

The soldiers around him looked to her like she was a demon. Both groups, Mewnian and the soldiers with Marco, all stepped away from her. A few fell over in the process. The only one that didn't step away was Marco. "From another reality, was it?"

Moon nodded.

Marco mimicked her motion and sighed. "Alright." Marco turned to one of soldiers, "Take the prisoners to the nearby campsite."

"Sir?"

"You'll move undeterred without a giant mobile suit looming above you. Use the bush to avoid conflict if possible. Once you arrive, get them a meal and blankets. Winter is approaching faster than we'd prefer."

"But sir…"

"No buts. You have your orders and the chain of command falls on Ensign Thomas. I'll join you as soon as I can. Understood?"

The soldier took a moment and had to take a deep breath. "Yes, sir!" The soldiers convened and started to march the prisoners off and away from the city.

Marco turned to Moon, "Now… _Queen Moon_ , why are you here?"

Moon watched as the soldiers walked off as she spoke, "I'm seeking something called a memory shard. A broken item that will always be out of place here."

Marco took a moment of thought, "I can't say I've heard anything about…"

Marco was cut off when the radio at his side went off. " **Lightning One calling Iron Kraken! Iron Kraken come in!** "

Marco picked up the receiver, "This is Iron Kraken! Lighting, what's going on?"

"A **Mewman behemoth is in the area!** "

Marco's tone turned panicked, "What?!"

" **It's been sighted fifteen miles west of your last position! You've been ordered to move to intercept!** "

"Understood! Iron Kraken moving to intercept!" Marco hung up the radio and started to run toward the mech. On the way, he turned back to Moon, "We'll have to settle this later!"

Moon took a moment but started to run next to him.

They arrived at the mech at the same time, "What are you doing?"

"The sooner you deal with this, the sooner you help me, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, that being the case, I'll help you and you'll return the favor with the memory shard."

Marco debated this for a moment. "I can't, in good conscience, condone you following me into this fight. I can't stop you if you really are a Queen, but I can't condone it, either. Whatever you do from here, we aren't affiliated."

Moon knew how these things went. He was required to tell her he couldn't accept her help, while not saying not to help. This left her open to do as she wished in the situation. Moon smirked at this. "Alright then." She shifted into her Butterfly form.

Before she could take off, Marco grabbed one of her arms and held her back, "Let me make this clear, if you follow and decide to fight, I will act accordingly. I'm going in to fight a Mewman force. As a Queen of Mewni, albeit a Mewni from another reality, I'll go forward expecting you to attack me for this. If that happens I will do everything in my power to survive, even if it means going through you. Understand?"

Moon took in what he had just said. She couldn't fault his logic. She was from Mewni, even though it's a different Mewni, and there was the danger to someone fighting Mewni that she would fight back. But she wasn't about to turn on Marco just yet. From what she's seen, he's an honorable soldier in this reality. No reason to attack him, right? Moon nodded.

Marco released her and grabbed a handle attached to the cable. He practically flew up to the open chest of the mech and jumped inside. When the hatch closed, the glowing pink appeared again and raised itself up from its knee. " **STAY CLOSE AND DON'T WANDER OFF.** " As they approached a tall hill, Marco's mech stopped and the hatch opened. He stepped outside and stretched his back.

Moon flew back, confused, "I thought we were in a hurry."

"We are. The behemoth, apparently, isn't. It's heading this way as we speak. Unless it deviates from that path, we can wait here for it."

Moon looked out toward the horizon where the beast would supposedly arrive. She nodded and sat down on the edge of the opened hatch, reverting to her normal form. The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Moon felt compelled to speak. Back home, she wouldn't have necessarily bothered to pass time like this. Maybe it was because she was 15 again, maybe because the person next to her was a family friend, or perhaps a combination of the two… Whatever it was, she didn't care for the silence. "Can I ask you a question?"

"As long as it's not about sensitive information, sure."

Moon sat back a bit and leaned on her arms. "How did this war start?"

Marco sighed and nodded, "The Mewman Queen Meteora. In a mass power grab, she tried to take over as many dimensions as she could without losing the Magic High Commission's blessings. She tried to take over what she called 'backwater dimensions' but got a fight on Earth. It's been going on long enough that we humans had to build these." Marco knocked on the mech's hull. She's a bit out of date now, but she's treated me alright so far."

"She?"

"Right. You're from Mewni. There's this odd tick in humanity that large transports like ships, planes, cars, mechs, and so-on are usually addressed as 'she.' I never understood why, personally. Then again, I also don't really care. But, I was explaining how the war started. Meteora wanted to use a war to get her citizens to overlook her ineptitude as a ruler."

"That's… a bit more detailed than I expected of Mewni's motivation."

"Part of why we're here right now instead of under Meteora's boot heel. Mewman resistance forces popped up because of her actions as a queen. When Meteora invaded Earth, the resistance groups followed her through. Human spies joined the groups and the Mewman resistances became a cohesive unit allied with us earthlings."

Moon nodded. "Mind if I ask another question?"

"Go nuts. We appear to have time."

"How did humans create… this?" She gestured toward the mech, "I've been to Earth in my reality and things like this just don't exist."

"Interdimensional war with a race of magical beings will do that…"

"What do you mean?"

Marco took a deep breath, "It's something humans are just good at. 'It is a fundamental, undeniable quality of mankind; that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable.' Layman's terms, humanity's greatest feats are often born from conflict as a way to survive."

Moon stared, wide eyed. It was crazy to think that Marco would say something like that. "I… I don't…" Moon sighed and nodded, deciding to accept the description he gave. "Okay, last question…"

Marco looked out over the area, "No sign of the behemoth yet. So, go ahead."

"Right… I wanted to ask why you joined the war, then. You seem a little young to be a soldier."

"I am. Just 15, actually. I lied my way through the recruitment and pushed my way through training. By the time the military found out, I was an invaluable asset in the mechanized program with a Soldado." Marco tapped the mech with his knuckle again.

"Is that the name of the mech?"

"Yes and no. Technically, this is a Soldado model heavy armor mech. I, personally, call her Plata."

"Plata?"

"It means Silver. If I could get her a good cleaning, this baby would sparkle like a silver star. Plata is a beautiful mech, but time has played its course. She's tarnished… but she's still my Plata." Marco put the notepad away and stood up, tapping her shoulder. "Show time." Marco pointed to the tree line below them to show a massive, 100-foot creature walking on all fours. It looked like a giant lizard covered in steel-plate armor. It's sickly yellow-green scales made the beast look familiar to Moon, like one of the soldiers under Toffee. Rast-something… She couldn't remember his name. When the beast stood up on its hind legs and roared, it really reminded her of one of Toffee's old soldier.

Once Moon was clear and flying in Butterfly mode again, Marco jumped back into the mech and closed the hatch. The eye began to glow again and moved into a combat stance. " **READY?** "

Moon smirked and created a small ball of magic. "Oh yeah!" Being 15 again was definitely getting to her head. She was her old self again, her old happy-go-lucky persona returning to the surface after all these years. As if the name Toffee never existed!

As the behemoth charged, Marco's mech sprung to life and jumped down onto the field in front of the beast. Marco pointed the mech's gun at the lizard and started to unleash a fury of car-sized bullets toward the beast. The damage was minimal, but he expected as much. As he fired, Moon flew to the side and used a magical burst to put the lizard off balanced and force it onto its side, hoping to reveal a weakness in the armor. Unfortunately, none existed. The armor covered the beast completely and no one location was allowed a weakness. Moon cursed to herself and flew over toward the mech, which was still firing at the lizard to keep it pinned.

Moon floated next to the mech's head, "No weaknesses in the armor!"

" **CAN YOU BREAK THE ARMOR FROM THE INSIDE WITH MAGIC?** "

"Not likely! It's Mewman based, anti-magic armor."

" **LOVELY…** " Marco ran out of bullets in the magazine and went to reload when the lizard jumped up and bit at Marco's gun. The mech lurched back and the gun was ripped from its hands. " **DAMN IT!** " Marco drew a single-bladed battle ax. The end of the blade began to glow.

Moon used her magic to try to distract the creature, knowing she couldn't really damage the creature as long as it was wearing that armor. She could, however, push the beast around and cause it no small amount of annoyance. As she did, Marco's mech would be nearby to strike the behemoth with its ax. The armor was starting to show damage. A few more good hits and they could probably break the armor. The beast seemed to prefer that not happen. After a heavy hit from Moon, it jumped off the ground and bit into the mech's right arm, the one holding the ax. The behemoth bit down with enough power to destroy the arm's infrastructure and rip it off at the elbow.

"Marco!" Moon flew over to the beast and attacked its face, trying to get it to back off.

The lizard ignored her and continued its attack on the mech. It broke one of the legs with its tail and tried to tear into the mech's chest with its claws. The glowing eye began to flicker as the mech began to rip apart. The chest broke open and a pod flew outward, passed Moon. The behemoth didn't seem to care about the pod and continued to tear the mech apart. Moon, however, did care and flew off to the pod.

When she arrived, a bloodied Marco rose up from the pod and looked on as the behemoth ripped Plata to shreds. He fell onto his knees and watched in horror. Moon had to shake him back to his senses before he could speak, "Damn it… DAMN IT!"

"I get the mech was important, but doesn't this seem a bit much?"

"A bit much?!" Marco's tone made Moon recoil, "That was the only mech we had! The only lifeline the region had to fight these damn behemoths!"

"It's a war!" Moon picked up his shouting tone, the situation making them both rather tense, "That thing's a weapon! Weapons can be replaced!"

"Not when every weapon is marching their way to the capital!" Marco punched the pod, causing him to flinch at the pain of slamming his fist into a metal casing. Marco took a deep breath, "Next week, the Earth and Mewni resistance force will march on the Mewman capital. Plata was out of date, so they let us keep her. But that's it! I'm the only pilot with the only mech! And Plata is being torn apart as we speak! I'd say this is an appropriate reaction to the realization that everyone here is going TO DIE!"

Moon was shocked by two things in that moment. The first was Marco's outburst. The second, was that she slapped him when he was done. She didn't take a second to think about the situation, she simply spoke from her heart in that moment, "Then change it! Humans built those machines to fight magic! You fought back against the army of Mewni and survived this long! You lied your way into the army and fought this long, didn't you?! Why should this be able to stop you?!"

"There's a difference between lying to cheat a system and fighting a behemoth with weapons that won't work! Not to mention the fact that we have no way to get ahold of command to warn them!" He shook his broken radio in her face and tried to storm off, only for one of his legs to fail him. A piece of shrapnel had buried itself in his leg; and with the adrenaline high ending, the pain was starting to make itself known. "Great… Just great…"

Moon walked over to him and propped him up with his arm over her shoulder, "Where's your base?"

"What?"

"Where is your base?"

"50 miles south-southwest. But how does…?"

Moon took out a pair of scissors and cut the air in front of them, creating a portal.

"The hell?"

Moon walked them both through the vortex, dropping them off in the base.

"The hell?!"

Moon ignored him, "MEDIC!"

One of the soldiers in a green uniform with a bright red cross ran over and took Marco from Moon.

For the next half hour, Moon sat just outside the base camp thinking to herself. She wanted to help these people fight the monster approaching them, but she also had her own mission to complete. This was taking her out of her way more than she would have liked. She's a queen and only had so long to stay here. She loved River and trusted him to rule in her stead, but she still preferred to be nearby in case something goes wrong. Not in another reality for who knows how long! Moon considered flying off to complete her mission in order to return to her family when she felt a cold sensation on her cheek.

As she jumped, she spun to find an extremely familiar face. A happy blonde girl, likely around 15-16, with a face Moon knew very well. This reality's version of Star chuckled at Moon's reaction. "Sorry, I've been trying to get your attention for a while now." She held out a can toward Moon. "It's an Earth beverage called soda. We don't have much in the way of water to spare out here just yet."

Moon took the can and looked down, uncertain about how to open the can. After Star showed her how, Moon opened the can of soda with a metallic pop. She took a sip and nodded. "Not bad…"

"Right? I like it anyway. Most Mewmans like it because it's something different than rationed corn 24/7. Not even enough to make the corn into anything different…" Star sighed, "But that's about to end one way or the other at this point."

"That's rather morbid, don't you think?"

"A little." Star drank her soda until it was emptied. Star sighed with satisfaction and nodded lightly, "I also wanted to thank you for bringing Marco back."

Moon turned to Star, "Don't worry about it."

"Still will." After a while in silence, she continued, "Marco means a lot to everyone here. He's the reason most of us are alive. For some, he helped them escape Meteora's command and see their families again."

There was something in her tone that kicked Moon's parental instincts into gear. "He means a lot to you in particular, doesn't he?"

Star nodded, "Pretty much."

This caught Moon off guard. She expected a stuttered response with a denial.

"He means more to Mewmans than Earthlings. To Earthlings, he's a renowned pilot and a leader to look up to despite his age. To Mewmans… it's a little different. When the war started, Meteora tried to get everyone to believe humans showed no mercy. That if we surrendered, we'd be killed on sight. Someone decided this was a better option than living under Meteora and threw up his hands. But no guns fired. He and his unit were taken away, seeing how things were on the other side. They learned the reason no one captured returned was because they joined the humans. Marco picked up the fight and followed suit."

Star took a deep breath and smiled, "He was always kind to everyone, no matter what side they were on. This nobility and kindness resonated with Mewmans and we started to see him a little different. He was like a knight in shining, silver armor." Star chuckled, "Granted that armor was the size of a building, but it still worked."

Moon smiled. The Marco she knew could certainly be a knight with training. And his need to help shined at times, especially when she learned about the revolution he led at St. Olgas. Her smile faded, remembering recent events. "Yeah… About that armor…"

Star nodded somberly, "I know. We all know. Plata didn't come back, so we're more than well aware she's gone… Nothing for it."

Moon turned to Star with an incredulous look, "Um… Why are you so okay with this? Marco said this behemoth will probably kill everyone."

Star smiled, "That's a surprise for later."

Sensing that conversation had ended, Moon finished her drink and looked off into the world around her. In this state, she noticed something she hadn't before, "Mind if I ask why some of your uniforms are green and others are red?"

Star was dressed in a red uniform, sans the short cloak Marco had accenting his own version. "The green uniforms are for rank and file soldiers and medical staff. The red uniforms are used by the officers. The extra accents show how high in the chain you are. I'm the lowest rank of red officer and Marco is two ranks higher thanks to being an influential pilot. Helps bring in more Mewman rebels when a well-known, knight/officer is on the front lines while the Mewman command, which starts and ends with Meteora, stays behind the safety of the castle walls ignoring their plights." Star spun to turn to Moon, "Now, I have a question for you."

Moon raised an eyebrow, "Okay?"

"Don't worry about it, I just want to make sure there's no… ulterior motives to saving Marco."

Her implication made a shiver run up Moon's spine. "Absolutely not!" Her tone made Star chuckle, but also made it clear to all who heard.

"Nice kick to moral, you know that?" Marco had walked up behind them.

Star turned and placed her hands on her hips, "You know you shouldn't be walking around right now, right? You got a piece of metal lodged in your leg removed. You should be resting."

"We can rest later. Right now, we need to gather in the center of camp."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Figure out how to kill the giant monster coming to slaughter us."

"Good reason." Star motioned for Moon to follow and the three met the rest of the soldiers in the camp. Included in these numbers were the Mewman soldiers from the ruined city, now in green uniforms.

Marco took a deep breath. "An armored behemoth is headed this way. I don't know how long it will take to arrive. For now, we need to think… of…" Everyone around them seemed hopeful as they look toward Marco. Many were smiling seeing the honorary human knight. Marco was just confused, "What's going on?"

Star chuckled, "The surprise." She gestured to some of the soldiers on the end of the group, who ran to the side.

"Star, what's going on?"

She just smiled to Marco.

Moon, however, could feel something approaching. A magic presence. Not a person, but magical all the same.

The group from before used an apparatus to pull a massive item under a burgundy tarp. They started to remove the tarp and showed the mech beneath it. It was a sleek armor, extremely reminiscent of a knight's.

Marco looked to the mech, "Star… what's going on?"

"We have a mech to fight with~"

"And why do we have that?!"

"Because it's not human, for one. At least… half not human." She smiled as she spoke, "It's a new mech we've been building here on Mewni since we allied with Earth against Meteora. Part human, part mewman. Using technology and magic. Finally finished the work and she's ready to fly."

Marco took a moment to himself to think, nodding after a while. "Okay… we might be able to do this…"

"What's this 'might' part?" Star smiled. "We've all got this, but we need the knight on the front line."

Marco shook his head. "No, you don't."

"What?"

Marco turned to all of the soldiers, walking over to a set of boxes and starting to climb them.

Star watched on and nudged Moon's side, "This is going to be fun."

Marco looked out over the soldiers. "Many of you are expecting a speech to spur you all on. But you don't need one. You're all here to save your families from a tyrant's rule, either to keep her at bay or to free your families from her reign. You don't need a speech to spur you on. I can see it in your eyes! You're not afraid of that behemoth heading this way. You all want to fight to kill that beast and return home! A single mech isn't going to change anything. But this mech isn't a single mech." Everyone was confused for a moment before he clarified, "This is the culmination of your hopes. Both humans and mewmans created this! This is the hope we all share! A hope for freedom and peace! I'm not going to ask you all to fight in this battle. Because you'll fight even if I ordered you to leave!" The crowd cheered as he continued, "But I do have an order for you all. Live! Live for the future! If you only wanted to survive, you could have stayed home and lived under Meteora! But you all chose to live! Now… let's make sure we live."

\/

After two hours, the behemoth was seen over the horizon. Marco was waiting in the new mech. Moon floated in her Butterfly form to the side and the rest of the soldiers were nearby. Their magic and weapons wouldn't be able to damage the armored behemoth, but they refused to back down. Star was standing with a large launcher next to her, waiting for the beast to approach.

The armored behemoth saw Marco's new armor and stood back up on its hind legs, as if to challenge the new face. Marco glared and went to draw a sword given to his mech. When he pulled the handle, he saw no blade. " **STAR…** "

Star shouted up to him, "SMALL BUTTON ON THE HANDLE!"

Marco pressed the button and a blade of magic energy surged out from the handle. Marco whistled to himself and smiled. It was time to kill a behemoth. Marco leaned the mech forward a bit and thrusters on the back boosted it forward.

As he charged, Moon and soldiers let loose with their own attacks. Star fired a rocket straight for the beast's head. The concussive blast forced the beast to stagger, allowing Moon to slam a magic blast to force it to remain off balance. This allowed Marco to strike at the beast with the magic sword. The armor super-heated and it melted a bit like a slash mark. The beast roared and was beyond angry. It tried to charge Marco but was kept off guard by the soldiers and flying magical queen. Marco attacked as the soldiers kept the lizard from attacking back. Each slash made the armor weaker. Slowly but surely, the attacks from all sides were dealing more and more damage to the beast. One attack ripped through the armor, giving Star a shot at the lizard's flesh with the rocket. This angered the beast enough to ignore Marco for a moment to charge toward her.

Marco grabbed the remaining armor and pulled the beast back from its charge, forcing it to the ground. In a swift movement, Marco buried the magical blade into the beast's chest armor, heating it further. The smell of burning lizard wafted over the area as the armor cooked it. The behemoth pushed Marco off, but the blade remained. Moon flew over and charged a magical burst. Unleashing the magical energy, she forced the blade clean through the lizard's body. The behemoth twitched and convulsed until its body finally fell limp. The crowd of soldiers cheered out at the dying behemoth, able to live another day.

Moon watched as the lizard burned away, a small shimmer catching her eye. She used her magic to push the button on the blade to retract the magic. Sitting on the burnt ground was a small, fractured gemstone. It glowed a brilliant sky blue and felt familiar to her. It reminded her of home.

She flew over to the swarming crowd of soldiers as Marco exited from the mech. They all celebrated their success and survival. It was a push back against Meteora, proving they were going to live. That they would never bow to her.

Moon watched on and smiled. She turned and took a deep breath. She knew it was time to leave. A hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned around to find Star and Marco.

Star smiled sadly, "Not even going to say goodbye? What kind of inter-reality mother are you?"

Moon jumped a bit in shock. "I… You… How…?"  
Star laughed at Moon's reaction. "You look a lot like my mother when she was younger. Marco filled in the rest of the information."

Moon smiled and nodded. "Of course…" She took a deep breath, "I'm sorry. I need to return home."

"Don't worry about it." Marco waved her off. "We all fought to return home. You're just going home faster than the rest of us." He chuckled, "We wanted your take on something before you leave. If you don't mind."

"Sure."

Star smiled. "We still have to name the new mech. I wanted to name it something cooler than Plata!"

Marco turned to Star, "I happened to like Plata!"

"I know you did, but now you can do something better."

"You're the one that called me a knight. I'd think a mech like silver armor would fit that idea."

Moon placed her arms between them and pushed them slightly apart, "Get to the point please…"

Marco nodded, "I had an idea and wanted to run it by you both first. I think the type of mech is clearly superior to the old Soldado. I was thinking of calling it a Reina."

"What's that mean?"

"It means Queen."

Moon couldn't help but laugh at that. "Really?"

"Yep."

Star folded her arms, "I still think we could do better?"

"Can we?" Marco smirked. "Think about it. Our enemy is Queen Meteora, right? Well, why not push back with a queen of our own?"

Moon finally stopped chuckling and sighed. "I like it."

Marco smiled. "I'm thinking… for a full name." He feigned a moment of thought before wrapping his arms around both of them, "Reina Luna."

Star raised an eyebrow, "Queen Moon?"

Moon looked between Marco and Star, "You…"

Marco just smiled.

Star came to the realization at hand, "Wait… she's… then…"

Marco burst out into laughter and released the two.

\/

After a small celebration and a christening of a new mech, Moon returned to the portal area and looked at the gem in hand. She couldn't help but smile. She looked into the portal and took a deep breath. It was time to go home.


	7. Stars and Cultists

**King: I've rewritten this more times than most others. Most of the way into one version, I switch it to something else. I scrap that for another. I rewrite the original idea with a different spin. Safe to say, this took a while. Hope you enjoy it all the same, though~**

 **/\**

"WWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Star fell out of the sky with an excited cry. A new world to explore! An adventure! She was more than ready for this! She landed just like the superheroes in the movies she would watch with Marco back on Earth. When she did, she wondered why anyone would ever do something like that ever! Seriously! It was super hard on your knees. Star felt her whole body shake in pain from that. She slowly stood back up and took a few deep breathes, easing her pained knees.

Once her knees stopped aching, she started walking around. This place seemed kind of familiar… She looked around seeing a green, maintained field with a concrete pathway. A few trees dotted the landscape. Wait a second… Star ran off in a direction, finding a sign nearby reading [Echo Creek Park].

Star's eyes widened. She was back in Echo Creek! She ran about to see if it really was the Echo Creek she knew. Sure enough, she saw so many familiar sights from her time on Earth. It was exactly like Echo Creek! Maybe it was Echo Creek! She should go see Janna and StarFan13!

Thinking about the friends she wanted to see, she slowed a bit. She looked around again and noticed something odd. No one else was walking around. In fact, there was no sign of people living in Echo Creek at all. She slowly walked and looked around, truly taking in the area. There was no sign of any violence or anything like that. It just seemed like everyone left.

Star continued to walk through town, getting more and more concerned. There was no one around. No human in sight. It wasn't all quiet, the animals were still around and scurrying about, but the lack of human noise was a little odd to Star. Come to think of it, this place just felt off. Like, familiar, but also kind of weird. She froze at one point and turned on her heel to the side. Off in the distance was the familiar sight of Mewni Castle.

"Okay… So, Echo Creek is in Mewni here. Or… is Mewni on Earth? Weird…" She kept walking on through town. Nothing seemed too out of place for the most part. She just felt like everything was perfectly normal.

As she walked, she saw something strange off to the side of one of the streets. There was a group of strange people walking through town with spears in hand. She couldn't see any of their faces through grey bandana masks with a large pink diamond over their mouths. Whoever they were, they looked mean.

Star decided to duck into a nearby alley to avoid them. She used her wand to jump onto the roof of one of the buildings to get a look at them, though. She had to know what was going on, after all. From her perch, she saw a very odd sight. The group was dragging someone behind them. They were beaten up and tied up so they couldn't escape. Whoever this was, the masked group didn't want them getting away. Star growled and readied her wand for a fight. She jumped down onto one of the masked men and pointed her wand at another one, only for her vision to get blurry. She started to see stars as she tried to attack the masked men, but she was having difficulty standing. Looking down to the man she tackled, she saw she had broken some kind of gas tank. The world started to spin around her and she passed out soon after.

\/

Star regained consciousness in a dark room, her hands tied down to a chair. Her strength was still beyond her, so she could only struggle weakly. From her seat, she could feel she still had her wand. They likely didn't know what it was if they let her keep it… After a while, she started to look around the room. She was sitting in a large metal room that reminded Star of one of those interrogation rooms in those over-the-top action movies. And… that was it. There was nothing else in the room.

Star jumped a little when she heard a door behind her open. She tied to look behind her, but the chair was tall enough to stop her from seeing it. She tried to struggle again but stopped when a hand fell onto her shoulder. A young woman walked around the chair, and Star's side. She walked with a certain power and a resolve. She was dressed in a suit vest with a matching skirt, frilled shirt, leggings, and dress boots. Her sky-blue hair was tied back into a short ponytail. In fact… she looked kind of familiar…

The young woman turned to Star and leaned down to meet her at eye level. She smirked seeing Star unable to escape the chair, "Hello there, little one."

Okay, that voice and accent clinched it. That was Moon Butterfly! But… the young Moon, as she was on the tapestry (when she fought Toffee). Star had an internal freak out for a moment before gathering herself again in an attempt to get a hold of the situation. "Who are you?" She knew the answer, but had to confirm it.

The young Moon's smirk faded, "I find it hard to believe you attacked my men, who were carrying a prisoner, and not who they worked for."

Star chuckled nervously, "You'd be surprised…"

Moon raised an eyebrow before her smirk returned. She stood back up and looked down toward Star, "I'm Moon Butterfly…"

 _I knew it!_ Star was about to say something, but Moon continued.

"… The Queen of Diamonds and right hand of our High Lord."

 _Wait. What was that last part?_

"I can tell you're confused." Moon leaned back down to Star, "But I think you're just not looking at this right. You're thinking, 'If you're a Queen, can you really serve someone?' and 'Do you really expect me to just sit here while you spout your rhetoric?'" Her grin turned into a wide smile. "The answer to both, of course, is 'yes.' And soon, you'll see how powerful that little word can… be…" Her grin disappeared and she seemed to recognize Star.

Star moved her head back a little, as far as she could in the chair, "Uh… Is something in my teeth, or…?"

"You seem familiar."

"I guess I just have one of those faces." Star tried to pass it off as a joke. This was getting awkward. Getting judged by a teenage version of her mother just feels weird.

"You look an awful lot like my daughter."

This made Star freeze. "Daughter? But you can't be more than 17!"

Moon's grin returned. "I am now. I might not look it, but I've had quite the transformation. I'm actually much older by years. But my body is indeed that of a teenager again."

Star looked at Moon in concern. Something in the back of her mind had to know, "So… this daughter? Where is she now?"

Moon smiled, "She's long gone. Died a few years into her life during a harsh winter."

"Oh… Um… I'm sorry to bring it up."

"Don't be. It was an eye-opening experience."

 _Okay, awkward just turned creepy._

"Stuck in a loveless marriage, forced to live the lonely life of a ruler when I didn't care for it, I wanted nothing more than to run away. But I always talked myself out of it. I just kept asking myself, 'Can I really just run away?' I would always shake my head and tell myself no. After my daughter died, I started to come to my senses. And I ran." She spoke as though this was the most normal conversation in the world. Like there was nothing weird about saying the death of your own child was a trigger for your own life! Moon leaned a little closer to Star. "I finally told myself, 'yes.' Do you know how liberating that was? To finally say, 'Yes! I will leave! I don't care if the throne rots and all of Mewni burns. I'm gone!'"

Moon paused a moment before continuing, "But I always felt drawn back. I wanted to start over, but I never could the way I was. That's when my Lord found me again. He said to me, 'Do you truly want to start again? To never be drawn to the throne by the will of others?' And do you know what I told him?"

Star was officially scared now. This Moon was beyond creepy and the way she was talking made it worse.

"I told him, 'yes.' Who knew such a little word could have so much power? Next thing I knew, I was young again. I had my second chance. Ever since, I've been teaching the power of 'Yes' to whoever I can. So… will you indulge me a question?"

Star was stunned. She couldn't speak. She didn't know if she could.

Moon's face turned sour. "Well?!"

Star recoiled a little when Moon shouted.

Moon's sour turn angry. "ANSWER ME!" She grabbed at Star's hands, squeezing the young princess's wrists into the hard wood of the chair. When Star's stunned silence was all she was met with, Moon screamed in frustration and knocked Star's chair over to the side. "Fine! I'll have to teach you the hard way!" She left the room in a huff.

Star didn't want to know what she was planning. Thankfully, the push knocked her wand to the ground and in range of her hand. Star destroyed her restraints and started to make a run for it. She ran through the halls, hoping to get out of dodge as fast as she could. When some of the masked men appeared again, she blasted them with magic and ran out of the compound. Once she was outside, she just ran. She ran as fast and as far as she could.

\/

She finally fell to her knees after running to the opposite side of Echo Creek. That compound was twisted! Hearing her own mother say that stuff?! Even if it was a crazy, other dimension version of Moon, that was just wrong. "None of that was okay! NONE OF THAT WAS…"

Star froze seeing a bright white wolf with aqua-green markings on its face. It was staring at her. It never moved. It just sat there. It was freaking her out. _Was it real or was it a decoration? Wait! Was it there before?_ The wolf tilted its head to the side, showing it was a living creature.

Star jumped back and fell toward the ground. She nervously waved to the wolf, "Um… Hi?"

The wolf then shot its head skyward and let out a howl.

 _What the heck is that about?_

Star watched as a young woman with short seafoam-green hair walked out from a nearby store. She was dressed in something similar to the hunting garb used by humans on Earth, leaf-based camouflage with a few splotches of orange. Her coat was open, showing her tan tank top underneath the coat. After what happened, Star could easily tell this was Kelly. Even with her usual rounded glasses being replaced with a slimmer, more sporty pair. On her back was a hunting bow and a quiver of arrows.

Kelly walked over and petted the head of the wolf, walking toward Star. She stared at Star for a moment in silence for a while before kneeling down to meet her eyes. The silence continued until Star leaned away and Kelly sighed. She stood back up and helped Star to her feet.

Star was a little surprised, but felt this was a good sign. "Thanks. I…"

Kelly pushed her hand away and said, "Run."

This caught Star off guard. "What?"

"You are weak. But there is a strength within you that I want to test. So, run. Run far and fast. If you survive the night, I'll have to accept your strength."

Star was stunned. _What on Mewni is wrong with this place?!_

Kelly raised an eyebrow before snapping her fingers. The wolf behind her seemed to spring to life and growled at Star. It moved toward Star slowly.

Star knew enough from her hunting trips with her father not to run with a predator staring you down. It would just make things worse. Star moved slowly backward. She moved her hand toward her wand. When the wolf started to charge her, she pulled her wand and used it jump away and onto a pink cloud. She used the cloud to escape the situation.

As she left, the cloud was hit by two arrows. If not for the semi-solid form of a magic cloud, Star would likely have been hit by one or both of the arrows. Star took deep breathes to calm her nerves again. This world was insane! Her thoughts were interrupted when her cloud lurched. "Woah! You okay there?"

The cloud was breathing heavily. "I just feel… tired…"

"No! No! NO!" The cloud popped and Star fell out of the sky. She shifted to her Butterfly Form and floated down to the ground. Once on the ground again, she returned to her normal form and was breathing heavily. She looked around to find herself in another section of town.

"Well hello there."

Star jumped and spun around, holding her wand at the ready to attack.

Standing behind her was the familiar visage of Janna, who placed her hands up when Star pointed her wand. This Janna was dressed in a ragged black dress that reached down to her knees. She was barefoot and without her hat, letting her hair fall down her shoulders. "On edge, aren't we?"

Star was ragged and done with this place! "Okay… What's your issue?"

Janna tilted her head, "Issue?"

"Yeah! I've only met two people so far and they've all been weird!"

"Oh? How so?"

"One said her daughter dying was a good thing for her and the other tried to kill me with a wolf!"

"Is that right?" Janna smiled, "Did you ever stop to think you're the odd one here?"

Star froze a moment. Technically, she wasn't wrong. Star was from another dimension, which likely had different rules and outlooks. _Is that just how this place is?!_ She shook her head to clear her mind and returned her attention to Janna. "Doesn't mean they get to try to kill me!"

Janna seemed to be… concerned. For her. "That's terrible!"

"It…" Star took a couple of deep breaths and her wand started to lower, "It is…"

Janna grabbed Star's hands, "Let's get you somewhere safe, and something to help you relax."

Star could almost feel tears welling up. This was the first person here that didn't seem crazy! Maybe she could get help with finding the shard after all! Then she started to see the stars from before. The same stars from when she broke that canister. "What's…?"

Janna tilted her head innocently, her smile remaining. "Is something wrong?"

"I… There's stars everywhere…"

"Oh? You can see them?"

 _Wait… what?_

Janna placed a finger on Star's lips, "Shh… It's okay. Nothing can hurt you here."

Star shook her head, forcing the stars away and started to run off again. Or at least, she tried. Her steps were heavy and it hard to stay conscious.

Janna walked behind her and placed a hand on Star's shoulder, "Calm yourself little one. You've no reason to fear. Let the Magic overtake you."

Star took deep, heavy breaths. This just made it worse. She coughed and her body felt wrong. She shook her head and she shifted into her Butterfly Form to fly away. She didn't see the look on Janna's face as she left. Her focus was on escaping. She lost consciousness soon after.

\/

She didn't know when she fell asleep, but waking up under a blanket and with a pillow under her head was the strangest thing in this world to the point where it had to be a dream. The only reason she didn't think the world was a dream was that she woke up on a couch. She sat up and looked around. The room was fairly simple: a couch, a coffee table, a lamp… Normal Earth stuff, just with a Mewnian twist. As she tried to stand, someone walked in. Star discretely made for her wand, only to find it being placed on the table in front of her.

She watched as the young man that had her wand sat down opposite her. His pale-purple skin, three eyes, and demon horns gave away that it was Tom Lucitor. What surprised Star was that Tom was dressed in a military-like uniform with a bandana with the Mewman flag symbol; recolored red, white, and blue. He placed a bottle of water in front of her. "Best I could find without the Cult's Magic stuff in it."

Star had been through three weird things at this point, why not a fourth?

Tom stood back up and sighed. "I don't blame you. This place has gone to hell and a handbasket since the cultists made their mark."

Star looked between the water and Tom, "What cult?"

"They call themselves the 4 Suits of Judgement. Hard not to see them walking around. Ragged clothes, bandanas with card suits on them…"

"Okay… I think I ran into a few of them."

"Right. And from what our lookouts have told me, you've met their generals as well."

"Generals?"

"When the cult took over, they divided the city into three. The northern section is ruled by Kelly, the west by Moon, and the southeast by Janna. All three are leaders in the cult under their Lord. The generals are all called Queens: Kelly is Clubs, Moon is Diamonds, and Janna is Hearts."

Star thought for a moment, "What about Spades?" She opened the bottle of water, it was previously sealed, so that gave her reassurance that they weren't tampered with.

"That's their Lord. Their King of Spades, Marco Diaz."

Star coughed as the shock came up when she was drinking. "What?!"

Tom raised an eyebrow, "You know him?"

"I…" Star paused a moment, "Kind of." Star told Tom about her mission, about the portal, and about the shard.

Tom was silent a moment before nodding. "Okay… I've heard of stranger things…" Tom thought for a moment.

"I know it sounds crazy, but it's true!"

"I believe you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, bright golden gem shard. "It would explain this thing."

To Star, the shard felt like it was something she always knew. It reminded her of home. "That's it!"

As she reached for it, Tom held her back. "Hold up. I'm not going to just hand this over yet."

Star thought for a moment. "Okay. So, I just need to complete a quest, right? Easy! What do I need to do?"

"Leave."

This surprised Star. "What?"

"Leave. Go back through your portal with this shard."

"Okay… so, why? Don't you need help?! I could help take down this cult! I could…"

"Get caught and have your wand taken away!" Tom's shouting wasn't angry. It was genuine concern. "They've seen you. They know you have actual magic now. If they get their hands on that…"

"I'm not about to lose my wand!"

"You don't have to! If they catch you, you'll get taken to one of the Queens and they'll start to mess with you! They'll crawl into your mind one way or another! If they catch you again, there's only two ways out! Either dead or you become one of them! You'll stop caring about anything you ever knew before and throw in with the cult, truly believing Marco is some kind of god." Tom was starting to cry as he spoke. He wiped away the tears and looked back to Star. "For your sake and ours… go home. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone."

\/

Star looked toward her portal with shard in hand. She turned back to the city, hearing the sounds of fighting. She wanted to help them. She wanted to help bring down this cult and those crazy, twisted versions of people she knew. But could she really? They were so crazy to her, that she just froze up before. Could she raise her hands against people she called her friends, even in this mad version? Can she stand to see Marco and not lock up like with the other three? Star's grip on her wand tightened. _Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone…_ Star entered her portal and returned home to Mewni.


	8. Marco's Audience

Marco's eyes shot open as he bolted upright. He was sitting by an open fire in a set of ruins. It was the fifth time he'd woken up like that. He patted at his chest, half expecting to find something out of place. But there was nothing wrong. He sighed as he stood. He'd been here a week. 7 long days of keeping his head down. 7 long nights of restless sleep. The fire pit was the only solace he had this past week. The burning bonfire was the only thing he had here.

Marco sighed and stood up, eyes still looked on the flame. "Alright… Let's try this again." As Marco walked, he left the fire burning. He never lit the fire. He never snuffed the fire. It simply burned.

Marco marched back off toward a looming castle. Over these days, he had gathered bits of armor, a shield, and a longsword, which hung on his back. He took a deep breath and began to quicken his approach.

Only to be met with an arrow embedding in his neck.

\/

Marco woke with a start and looked over to the fire. Six. Six times he woke by this fire. He rubbed his neck and decided to wait the night before going again. He leaned back and braced himself up by his hands. As he stared into the flames, he thought back to the day he arrived in this reality. There was no one around except for shuffling creatures. They kind of reminded him of zombies from an RPG. They were easy enough to knock down and get passed. Marco wasn't sure what this world was like until he first approached a bonfire.

The fire was like a beacon against the twisted world around him. It was then he could see the world for what it was away from the flame. This was a world of death. The dead walked around and monsters stalked the surface and skies intent on death. To be fair, though, he only learned about those creatures when he suddenly woke up at the fire. Looking back into his memories, he saw himself die at the hands of a massive dragon, crushed under the giant claws of the reptilian beast. As his body crumpled, he woke up back at the fire unscathed. When it first happened, he tried to play it off as a weird dream. But he also felt hollow inside. Every time he died here, he lost a little bit of himself.

As the sun rose again in the sky, Marco stood up from the fire and gathered himself and headed back out to the castle again. Sneaking around the sight of whatever shot him before, he was able to recollect what he lost of himself. He stayed low, watching the castle. Until last night, he had expected the fortress to be empty. Now he had to be more careful.

He was able to sneak his way to the door. He knew going through the door directly would only get him killed again. Thankfully, he picked up a few tricks in his adventures. While he was hunting down Hekapoo, he learned ways to create natural bombs of sorts. They were nowhere near as powerful as the Earth counterparts, being less powerful than a common grenade, but it would help him here. He mixed some powers he'd picked up the passed couple of days and used a special swamp slime to hold the mixture together. Thankfully, since this would only work with Mewni-like materials, the world around him seemed to follow a similar compound structure to Mewni.

Marco used his finger to draw with the mixture to the door in a pattern similar to a crude door. Once he was done, he sprinkled the rest of the mixture on the ground, out of the way, and moved back around the side. He struck a small flint and created a match, which he threw onto the door. The mixture started to glow and burst, breaking the door's section away from the larger structure. Marco was right to stay out of the way, as a small group of the undead soldiers he'd seen throughout the week. Marco used another match to light the mixture on the ground at their feet. The undead soldiers, having weaker bodies than living creatures, lost the use of their legs as they flew off their bodies. Marco charged passed the immobilized hoard and into the castle. He made his way through the castle and toward the throne room.

Once there, he saw a long dead man sitting on the castle's throne. His clothing falling apart and his skin long made ashen and twisted. A crown sat atop the dead man's head. Marco had seen this set up too many times and drew his sword and shield from his back. He approached slowly toward the dead king.

The undead monarch started to lift himself off the regal chair and started to draw a giant two-handed sword. The dead king began to march forward, sword readied to kill the young intruder. And then he heard it.

* _Ba bum*_

The familiar heartbeat. The same beating from his own reality. He hadn't heard it this whole time. A whole week and that beating was nowhere to be found. It told Marco he was in the right place.

* _BA BUM BA BUM BA BUM_ *

It picked up fast. Marco peered over his shield to see a twinkling light coming from the walking corpse. A small purple gem was embedded into the walking dead man's shoulder. It attempted to raise its arm to attack, which made Marco drop into a combat stance he'd been taught by the Mewman knights; shield forward, sword close to the side and pointed toward his enemy. The undead's arm started to stall. After a while the heartbeat and flashing light picked up and started to get to Marco. Marco tried not to look away from his opponent.

What he saw was breathtaking. The dead monarch's body started to glow a feint purple. His skin seemed to come back to life. The skeletal structure began to fill out. The dead king stood before Marco reborn. His dark hair revitalized, reaching down to his shoulders. His eyes were a bright, emerald green. His clothing reformed into their old form: regal attire in a deep purple with a red feathered cape. The crown atop his head looked remarkably similar to the kind worn by Queen Moon. The man had a form that exuded power and influence. The blood red, heart-shaped marks on his cheeks made it all flow together.

Marco was stunned, "No way."

The reborn king swung his sword over his head and embedded the blade into the castle floor and turned back to his throne. Taking his seat again, he placed one leg atop the other at rest. "Approach young one."

Marco found himself placing his weapons away and moving on instinct. As he approached the king, he realized his situation and started to bow like he would if he needed to meet with Queen Moon when she's working.

"Don't bother." The king waved the action away, "We both know I'm not your king."

Marco froze a moment. He shook himself back to reality, "Just to be sure, you _are_ King Nova, right?"

"King Nova Butterfly, yes. But not your Nova Butterfly." He closed his eyes in thought, "This is my world and you do not belong. But I also have memories not my own that make you feel familiar to me. No doubt a side effect of the stone lodged in my shoulder."

"Right… Well, I'm actually here for that gem."

"Is that so?" Nova reopened his eyes and stared down to Marco. "I feel no reason to stop you. But the stone isn't about to just slide out from muscles and flesh. I also have no doubt my current sentience will be lost by giving you the stone."

Marco quietly groaned to himself, "I take it I'll have to fight you to take it."

"No. I'll give you the stone. But I cannot speak for what I may do after the stone is taken. However, before this, we must deal with two orders of business. The first, is something the foreign memories compel me to bring up. The death of the one from which these memories originate."

"Yeah… I've been meaning to ask about that. You… or, I guess, the other King Nova, died and ended up being forgotten. What happened?"

"The memories I have don't speak of forced forgetfulness, but his death is concrete. A betrayal at the hands of his own wife." Nova shook, overcome by emotions not his own.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. The memories end with feelings of regret, anger, and sorrow. He loved her, or what she showed him. He was angry. But he was heartbroken. His soul was shattered. But there was something else. A latent spell. A way to save himself and his kingdom from his betrayer. But he was unable to cast it. He couldn't bring himself to."

"Okay…" Marco had set his sword and shield to the side to ease the weight on his shoulders. "But, why bring this up?"

Nova took in a breath, "The memories speak saying that he wishes to make up for this mistake. And it hopes to achieve this through you."

Marco nodded, "Alright. How do I do that?"

"A spell. One unlike all others."

"Um… I don't see how I'm going to do that. I'm just human. I don't have magic."

"Wrong young one." Nova raised his hand and pointed toward Marco's heart. "Within all living things is a pulse of magical energy. A sort of magic heartbeat."

* _Ba bum_ *

"You hear it, don't you?"

* _Ba bum_ *

"That is the beat of the Nova of your world. Follow it, and you'll find your spell."

"Wait, what do you mean? Don't you know the spell? Why not just tell me?"

"I don't know the spell. It was sealed away as he died. His memories were deliberately clouded of this spell."

"Okay. But that doesn't mean I can use it."

"Likely not without a catalyst. A wand would help you… But to use the wand, you must have an innate magical power. That is the only way to utilize the magical energy of your reality. Your magical pulse is weak. Weaker than many, but it remains present."

Marco nodded and took in everything for a moment before looking back to Nova, "And the second thing?"

"My personal request. Allow me to rest before you go. I give you the gemstone. But I ask that you take it before I revert."

"What?"

Nova stood and held his arms outward, "Whether you take the gem from my shoulder at my hand or yours, I ask that you burn my body and ensure that I will not have to raise my blade again. Kill me so that I may finally die for good."

Marco was stunned. It was a crazy request. But he could understand it. He'd seen the mindless hoard and how they would never truly stay down. Restless and without humanity. He took a deep breath before speaking, "Okay."

"If I may ask to be a bit selfish, I wish for you to take my life before you take the gem. I wish to die in my own mind rather than becoming a shambling corpse again. Burn me to ashes as I stand."

"What?!" Marco couldn't help the outburst. But, being well read thanks to his schooling on Earth and picking up a few books at the squires' library, he could understand the sentiment. Mewman warriors were a prideful bunch. After a while, Marco hung his head a bit and nodded. "Alright…" Marco pulled a few bags of powders out of his pockets and mixing them in his hands. He tossed the mixture onto Nova and pulled out a flint. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am certain, young one." Nova closed his eyes and raised his head upward, "Let it be done."

Marco looked away as he struck the stone against another and sparked the powder. The mixture burst into fire around Nova. There was no shouting. No screams. There was only a sigh of relief from the burning king. It was time to rest in peace. The gem began to glow again, and the fire became a brilliant purple. It took only a few minutes to burn away what was. The gemstone fell onto a pile of ash, which fell away beneath it.

Marco picked up the gem and watched as it flashed in pattern with the heartbeat he kept hearing. With gem in hand, he resigned himself to another week of walking back to the portal. His planning was interrupted when the gem's glow began to intensify, becoming blinding. When the glow died down, Marco was face to face with a portal, similar to the one that brought him to this world. He wasn't sure what to make of the portal, but Star's influence was all too powerful in his mind. He stepped through the portal, if only out of curiosity.

On the other side of the portal, Marco was face to face with the familiar sight of the crown in Butterfly Castle. It felt like home, so he was able to infer he was back in his own reality. He looked back over to the crown and saw the shaped gem within beginning to glow faintly.

* _Ba bum_ *

It was a faint heartbeat. As it began to pick up, he noticed it started to match his own. A heartbeat that felt like a calming force. A friendly presence. And yet, within, there was a sorrow. A regret. As its glow became brighter, Marco could sense what was within.

Inside the gem was a spell, one that Nova truly regretted bringing into this world. Within the gem, was a spell that could be used in cruelty. Within was a spell capable of snuffing out the well of magic within. To force the death of the magic of another. The light went out and the gem within the crown was gone, the spell unsealed, and the young squire now all too knowledgeable of its form.

Before Marco could really take in what he had learned, he suddenly found himself in the courtyard of the castle. He looked around to find Janna, Pony Head, and Rombulus sealed inside magic bubbles. Star, Kelly, Moon, Hekapoo, and Tom were scattered around in various states of exhaustion. Floating above them all was a man dressed in a long robe with greying hair, various gemstones floating around him.

Marco blinked in confusion, "What?"

/\

 **King: Things are kicking off now~! But I wonder, how did they get to the courtyard? Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**


	9. Together Again

**King: I am so freaking sorry this took so long to get out! I had a lot of stuff going on and new projects taking up my time... Oh well... I have one more chapter after this one, but this is the big climax. Hope you enjoy, despite how long you had to wait...**

 **/\**

In a flash of light Star fell out of her portal and took a deep breath. She looked around to find herself back in her reality, back home. She took a deep breath and found the rest of the group appearing from their portals at the same time. Well… all but one. "Where's Marco?"

Pony Head snapped awake, having fallen asleep at her post, "Huh? What? Oh! That's… weird. He should be here."

Hekapoo looked back toward Marco's portal. "What the heck is taking him?"

Janna was getting a little concerned now, "That's not the question to ask… According to a pamphlet the space-time guy gave me, you were all supposed to arrive at the same time, no matter how long you were in the other dimension. So, why didn't _he_?"

Moon looked around the room, "Where's Rhombulous?"

Janna blinked for a moment before turning on her chair. "I… have no idea."

Said magical being came running into the room and slammed the door behind him, pressing his back against the wood. "We've got a problem!" He noticed everyone had returned and raised a snaked hand, "Um… Welcome back."

The door was blasted in by a bright fireball. The mage from the monsterlands walked through the door slowly. "Apologies. But I was growing impatient."

Janna kicked her seat out and ran behind the magically inclined. "What the heck is going on?!"

The combat ready members entered into fighting stances toward the mage.

The mage bowed toward them, "I am Pietro Silvanous, Mage of the Abyssal Reach. And you all have items I want." Pietro raised a hand pulled it back quickly, ripping the gemstones out of their hands. Star tried to hold onto the item as best she could but collapsed as the mage increased his force. With five of the six gems floating above him, he glowered, "Where's the sixth gemstone?"

Star jumped back off the ground and glared toward the mage with wand ready to attack, "How do you know about that?!"

"I am a mage. One with the magical universe. It is my duty to know all things magical. As for the how, it is through a spell. I can place my magic on others and see through their eyes. Hear though their ears. I knew of your plans and your search. I knew there were six shards, but you have only five here. Where is that boy in the red hood? He surely has the final piece."

"Oh no you don't!" Star fired a blast from her wand, which was deflected by Pietro with little effort. "What?"

Moon followed after using a magical blade. Pietro caught the blade between his fingers and thumb, twisting his hand, and snapping the magical blade.

Pietro smirked, "Magic will not harm me little ones. I am a mage without equal. Far better than you Butterflys."

"If magic won't work on you…" Hekapoo created several clones and charged him with her scissors as knives. "Then try this!"

Pietro fired a blast of magic into the non-clone Hekapoo, forcing her back. With a flick of his wrist, she was slammed into each of her clones before sending her into a wall. Rhombulous tried to run around the grab him, but he phased right through Pietro and into Hekapoo. Tom and Kelly tried to attack him together, only for him to push them both back. When Rhombulous got back, he tried to seal the mage in a crystal, but his magic backfired and seal him in a bubble. Pietro did the same thing against the rest of the group but could only capture Janna and Pony Head within the bubbles, the rest escaping through magic or good training.

Pietro chuckled at the scene before him. "Why don't you all just tell me where the last gemstone is? It'll make all our lives easier."

Everyone tried to rush him, seeing as magic wasn't working. But he just created a barrier to keep them all back. He burst the barrier to knock them all back. The force behind it, however, was too great for the room to handle. The group, bubbled included, was pushed out the wall and into the courtyard below.

Pietro hovered in the air and sighed. "Enough of this… I'll just pull him here. I wanted to avoid unnecessary expenditures of magic, but I have no choice since none of you are talking." Pietro snapped his fingers, causing magic to pool around him. It flew off like a cloud and formed a makeshift, one-way portal. After a moment, Marco fell through the portal and onto the ground.

Marco looked up and blinked in confusion. "What?"

Pietro slammed onto the ground in front of Marco and used his magic to pick the young squire off the ground. Pietro smiled as he wrenched the purple stone from Marco's grasp before tossing him back again. "Now… everything is together~" He held his hands out and the gems started to float closer together.

"Oh no you don't!" Star fired a bolt of magic into Pietro's shoulder, doing little damage, but distracting him enough to force him to turn around. "I don't know what you want with the shards, but it's obviously not good!"

Pietro chuckled again. "Foolish little princess… Do you really think you can beat me with your magic? You skim the surface and think yourself a master?"

"What?"

"Magic is a wellspring of power, but it is deeper than so many can understand."

"So… you dip down, or…?"

"You dip in a bucket, but magic is an ocean. I am immersed in the power!"

Marco had gotten himself back together and kicked the mage from behind.

Pietro, having focused his work on his mental and magical studies, was physically weak. Taking the hit hurt him more than he preferred. Truthfully, 'preferred' would technically be no pain at all, but his weakness made him take more pain than others after the same attack. Pietro roared and turned toward Marco. Then he noticed the glow in the young man's hand. He stole the purple gem back during the hit. "Give that back!"

Marco ducked a magical attack and held the stone out in hand. "Not happening. By the way…" The stone glowed and started to fight against Pietro's magic. "The purple stone is the Royal stone. It controls the rest."

Pietro was freaking out, trying to hold the stones in place, "How the hell do you know that?!"

"Each stone is a memory. My stone has the information about the rest. Each one holds a spell Nova created. That's why you're after them!"

Pietro's eye twitched, but he smiled, "Yes! That's why! And _you_ aren't going to stop me!"

Tom looked up to see Marco motioning toward Pietro. Tom grinned and stood back up. He cracked his knuckles and jumped onto the mage's back, disrupting his concentration. Tom used his fire to burn Pietro or tried to. Physical attacks hurt, but Tom's magical flames dealt next to no damage. Pietro spun around and finally dislodged Tom from his back. The mage froze, realizing his mistake.

Marco now had the memory stones swirling around him. He released the purple gem, causing the other memories to halt their flights before flying into the purple gem. When it was all said and done, the gems created a rainbow colored, five-pointed star.

Pietro went mad seeing his work taken from him. "You think you can take what is mine?!" The mage released a massive wave of magic, knocking Marco back.

Marco held onto the gem as best he could. He held on until his back smacked against the castle wall. He coughed out and grabbed the gem again, only to be met with a foot colliding with his hand.

Hekapoo jumped over and tried to slash at the mage. Pietro used his anger to ignore the pain and grab the being by her throat. "You are a being of magic…" He held his other hand up, which started to glow, "What would happen if I drained you of that which gave you life?" Hekapoo started to cry out as her magic was ripped from her body slowly. Everyone else tried to stop him but were swiftly repelled as he used her as a human shield.

Marco clenched his teeth and took in a sharp breath. He clutched the gems harder, if only out of the force of the foot pushing down on him. _This star should be a good catalyst… The problem is getting it to work. But I have to try!_ Then he heard it again.

 _*Ba Bum Ba Bum*_

The gems reacted with the sounds, catching Pietro's attention. "The heck?" In the bright flash, he released Hekapoo and tossed Marco off with a kick. He looked around and didn't find any sign of the star. "Where did it go?!"

Marco laughed a bit through a cough.

"You… WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Marco looked back and showed off his grin, and a few new things. A pair of rainbow stars now adorned his cheeks. Everyone was surprised to see that. It didn't make any sense, but it happened all the same. Magic is weird, but this was out of their realm of understanding.

Pietro shook in place. "Damn you… DAMN YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Marco stood back up, clutching his arm. " _Shining star, burning bright, seen before the first. Go beyond your limitations and burst!_ " Marco's body started to tense as his new cheek marks glowed. He clenched a fist as magical power surged in his body, his hair standing on end as it flowed through him. The Red Gem's spell was released. _Super Nova._

Pietro just blinked, "The heck is this supposed to be?"

Marco groaned a bit as his body felt like it was on fire. The magic was expanding his muscles, putting him on par with his adult self, just in his teenage size. "The spell is called Super Nova. It enhances the physical body using magic. Now, ready to get beat?"

Pietro smirked and raised a hand, but Marco was instantly in front of him and inside his guard. Marco landed and massive punch to the mage's gut and sent him flying into the other side of the courtyard.

Marco landed next to Hekapoo, who looked up to him in sheer confusion, "Marco? What is…"

Marco glared toward Pietro as he roared from within the rubble, "I'll explain later. Star! Hit him hard!" Marco held up both hands toward the mage. A series of small lights surrounded Marco, _the Orange Gem released,_ "Star Swarm!"

Star grinned and held up her wand. "Warnicorn Stampede!"

The two spells slammed into Pietro, who strained to stop both powerful attacks from two directions.

Marco turned his head to the side, "Kelly! Hit him now!"

The sword fanatic didn't need an invitation. Using her new Titan Killer sword, she swung a nasty hit into the mage. He was able to prevent getting sliced in half, but only at the cost of tanking the remaining damage from the spells.

Pietro screamed out in frustration. "This isn't how this is supposed to work!"

Hekapoo got back up, but barely. She was drained from before and couldn't really fight back. She decided to get over to the bubbles, hoping to pop them somehow. She was just surprised by what she was seeing. Partially because it seemed familiar, somehow… She'd seen these spells. But she couldn't remember where. _Nova… Nova Butterfly…_ Her head felt like it was splitting apart, but soon memories returned. Memories of a long-lost monarch betrayed by his wife. "Holy…"

Marco reared a leg back, the lower half of which started to glow. He kicked out and unleashed a wheel of fire, the Yellow Gem's power, "Shooting Star!" _Two more._

Pietro blocked the attack but took a narwhal to the face for it. He growled in frustration and released a mass of magic through the ground.

Marco hopped in front of the others and held an arm up as though he had a shield. After a moment, he did. A shield of stars appeared on his arm and shielded them from the attack. This was the Blue Gem's spell, "Constellar Barrier!" He pushed the magic off and punched the ground, unleashing the Green Gem's power, "Crater Maker!"

Magic welled up underneath Pietro before bursting in an explosion of stone and dirt. The mage roared again in frustration. "ENOUGH!" He unleashed a magical whip and pulled the still exhausted Moon to him by her neck. He held her in front of him like a shield. "Give me the gems or I rip her apart!"

Star instantly froze up. "Mom!"

Marco glared toward the mage, holding a hand up. The stars on his cheeks disappeared and the gems reformed into the star in his hand.

Pietro grinned and moved slowly, keeping Moon in front of him in case anyone tried anything.

Marco took a breath. " **Fallen kings and monsters light…** "

Pietro paused and raised an eyebrow. "What are… DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?! I'LL KILL HER, YOU HEAR ME?!"

" **Hear the beating of magic's might.** "

Pietro's smile turned psychotic, "Fine! Have it your way!" He went to move but found himself unable. "What the hell is going on?!"

" **Silence that which beats within. The heart of power accepts my sin. Shatter what my foe never again will find! Break the will, the soul, and mind!** "

A flash of light cast everyone in shadowy silhouettes. A heart appeared over Pietro's own, beating rapidly. After a moment, the heart cracked from the top and the world returned to normal.

Pietro looked around, trying to figure out what happened. He took several shallow breaths before he shouted, "Whatever! Time to kill a Queen!" He raised a hand to shatter her in ashes, but nothing happened. "What?" He tried again to the same effect. "What's going on?!" The bubbles has burst as well.

Moon, now able to avoid being turned into dust by the magical master, elbowed him in the chin and jumped off and away from him. "What happened?"

Marco took a breath. "Nova's most powerful spell, and his greatest regret. A spell to take away the magic of another person."

Pietro's eyes widened in horror. "What? That's impossible! How could you do that?!"

"Nova's spell attacks your connection to the magical energy within you. In other words, you can't use magic anymore."

To the members of the High Commission, the spell threatened their existence, being forged from magical energy. As a result, they now held a certain fear of the young man that just cast the spell.

Pietro tried to stand again and glared toward Marco, "This isn't over… I'll… I'LL…" His threat was cut off as Rhombulous trapped him in crystal.

Marco collapsed, sitting on the ground. He looked down at the star in his hands. The light was fading from within the gems. Soon they blacked out, and Marco followed soon after.


End file.
